Along with the fantastically strange Prophet, Low has become one of my favorite science fiction comics.

Low is a post-apocalyptic, science fiction comic from Image Comics by writer Rick Remender and artist Greg Tocchini.

The comic is set on Earth billions of years in the future where the sun, instead of dying off a la The Dying Earth , has expanded and made the planet uninhabitable. The people now live in underwater cities deep within the ocean with most delving into debauchery given that the end is near.

The title Low not only refers to the deep setting of the stories, but also a description of the main characters themselves, a family whose traumatic experience has broken them apart and led some of them down a dark path.

The main story involves the surviving family members attempt to reach the surface of the planet after receiving information that a probe, launched some time ago, has returned with possibly some information about an inhabitable planet.

The characters not only have to deal with the elements before them, but also their shortcomings and doubts.

Tocchini’s line and color art is a beauty to behold and fits perfectly with Remender’s engrossing story filled with strange environments and creatures. It’s not hard to become lost in Tocchini’s renderings since there’s so much to take in and ponder, yet the story is not lost in the amazingly rendered vistas.

All the characters and their plights are interesting with the standout characters being Stel Caine, the matriarch of the family who keeps hope alive, and daughter Della Caine, who struggles to come to terms with a society whose beliefs remind me a bit of George Orwell’s 1984.

One can only hope that the family finds true salvation from this Earth, but the journey to that deliverance may come with a price.