Review: Gregory Suicide
The obsolete AI program Gregory wakes in a newly cloned body to a world now unfamiliar to him and is haunted by the memories of his past lives, each one ending in death by his own hand. On the path to discovering the truth about himself, Gregory slips into the trenches of two opposing forces that want to exploit him. In the end, he must take down an AI revolution before it wipes out humanity, and the key to doing so may only lie in the strange visions he has between life and death.
Just the title, Gregory Suicide, was enough to have me intrigued to read this new graphic novel. Written by Eric Grissom with art by Will Perkins and published by Dark Horse, it’s a Philip K. Dick inspired story about artificial intelligence with a twist. I’m not giving that twist up, you’ll just need to read it and it takes a while to get to that eventual reveal.
The story itself is straightforward in that an artificial intelligence wakes up and escapes which is odd in a world that has mastered this concept and controlling their releases. This AI is different though and as the story progresses it becomes more and more clear how special he is. Things pivot to the expected take the evil corporation down but despite the story being somewhat predictable what’s really interesting is what is underneath.
Much like some of the best sci-fi, this graphic novel explores themes and concepts using the narrative as a platform of discussion. Class and caste are discussed, the replacement of workers by robots is present, but what defines life seems to be the main one driving the story. Again, we’ve see that explored in other places but it’s done in some interesting ways here that are entertaining and unexpected. It definitely takes its main theme in interesting directions with the “suicide” aspect.
The art by Will Perkins is solid and has a style about it that reminds me of Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt. The characters all are very unique and the world itself feels like a slightly broken future without going too heavy handed pointing out how. There’s lots of solid details that stand out making the world feel very lived in.
I didn’t know what to expect reading this and came out the other side really impressed with a sci-fi story that entertains and challenges in some ways. There’s a solid mix of it all here and the philosophical elements of it all makes the graphic novel stand out.
Story: Eric Grissom Art: Will Perkins
Story: 8.0 Art: 8.0 Overall: 8.0 Recommendation: Buy
Dark Horse provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
Wednesdays are new comic book day! Each week hundreds of comics are released, and that can be pretty daunting to go over and choose what to buy. That’s where we come in!
Immortality and reincarnation are popular themes throughout pop culture. The possibility of living generations without the inevitable defeat of death is a scary and enviable idea, which has been explored many times. The theme of the hero who wants to find the endgame and the world that will never understand him. This has made franchises out of Highlander and Anne Rice’s Vampire series and even has played out on TV, on shows like New Amsterdam and Forever.