I'm dedicating a full post to this issue because Snyder and Soule provide one of our best glimpses so far into post-Sealing America life through Alex's story. As a result, I can't say that it's the most thrilling issue, since it's almost entirely exposition. But it does answer a lot of the questions surrounding the Graves family and fills in some gaps in our understanding of the Sealing's timeline. Since it doesn't really have a story, I'm just going to walk through the revelations in list form:
- Alex was born twelve years after the Sealing or 19 years ago, which is 135 years in Destiny time (I think).
- His parents, David and Elena, made a deal with Aurora that Charlotte and Daniel's DNA would serve as the key to "end all of this, when the time comes - or sooner, if need be." When they become concerned about the direction Aurora is taking, they have Alex as a fallback plan (since he serves as the same DNA key).
- David and Elena eventually realize their experiment failed. They observe in horror as the artists in Possibility go to war with each other. David mentions "Jain's horror show in Unity," "the murder festival...in History," and turning "Alaska to glass to make sure the stuff we stashed up there doesn't get out." Elena fears Aurora will release the pathogen that she and her team created outside America. You can see why they're skeptical it's going to end well.
- David and Elena decide to bring Charlotte and Daniel to America to walk the Spiral because Alex is too young and they can't wait any longer.
- Alex turns in David and Elena to Aurora after he overhears them recording their message for Charlotte and Daniel. He figures Aurora will punish them but doesn't realize that she'll imprison them. He's then left alone in Destiny. Cryptically, he mentions that he doesn't see them for a long time, implying they may still live.
- Alex survives because some farmers take him under their wing. He becomes a hunter and realizes that the lack of restrictions on Destiny's science means that it has more potential than just as America's food-production zone.
- This next part is a little unclear to me. Alex somehow manages to become a scientist at the Body Farms. I'm not surprised that he's smart enough to do so, given his parents, or educated enough to do so, given his parents' colleagues - all geniuses - were his teachers. But how does he convince the Body Farms to make him a scientist though? Did he just show up one day and say, "I can do the maths?"
- Alex transforms himself into the Destiny Man to show Destiny's people that he wasn't just cosplaying freedom but living it.
- Alex forms a following, and Aurora sends an Uncle Sam and his Silent Majority to stop (or test) him.
- Eventually, we get to where the series begins. Alex is at a stalemate with Uncle Sam but needs the information from him on how to leave Destiny.
Returning to the present, Alex complains to Daniel that every time he thinks that he's done what Aurora wants she smacks him with some new challenge. He tells Daniel that he branded him when they first met because it was important for him to dominate Daniel, since he was one of the loved children and Alex was merely the necessary child.
Daniel dismisses him as a narcissistic psychopath but realizes that he needs to travel "the River" with him because Alex knows where they are and where they need to go. I'm sure we'll get some brotherly bonding!
No comments:
Post a Comment