Event Horizon: Dark Descent #5: The Last Two Crew

Event Horizon: Dark Descent #5 is relatively tame compared to the three preceding issues. Rather than focusing on the hellish dimension the ship has found itself in, the issue instead centers on the last two survivors, Doctor Jennifer Kwon and Lieutenant Sara Tsang. Ward digs into their past in similar fashion to the other characters, but in this case he doesn’t turn their past experiences into a horror show. It’s a surprising change of pace and one that makes the issue more interesting than those that are primarily a horror show.

Lest readers be concerned that Event Horizon: Dark Descent #5 won’t live up to its horror sensibilities, though, the issue’s heavy character development is sandwiched between the same horror imagery that has been prevalent throughout the series. In this case, though, what the characters face is more visceral and tangible than psychological. It’s almost as though Ward went from the fine scalpel to the blunt club in how he delivers the final issue. It works surprisingly well because by this point there’s almost a need for the story to end. When read through as one piece, Event Horizon: Dark Descent is a horror story that ratchets up the tension without pause. Finally the series’ conclusion can supply that.

The main story’s final pages are somewhat jarring. There’s really nothing in the story to this point that suggests Event Horizon: Dark Descent #5 can end the way that it does. And yet if the reader can move beyond the ending’s very unexpected nature, it makes sense given Kwon’s character relative to every other crew member.

There is an epilogue that retroactively adds context to the Event Horizon movie. It somewhat undermines Doctor William Weir’s arc within the movie. But since readers of the series have almost certainly seen the movie first, there’s really no harm done.

Jones continues to capture the chaotic, demonic, bloody-minded horror setting that has been at the heart of Event Horizon: Dark Descent. By now the shock value is gone, but the gore is no less reduced. The real horror lies in the details: an eyeball hanging from one of several corpses, the chained up torso far enough into the background that it’s easy to miss, the bodies hanging around the edges of the engine room. With so much made of the crew dying in horrific ways in earlier issues, it’s these background details that solidify the horror that the ship has become.

One criticism here is Martin’s coloring which is done in so many similar shades of red that at times it’s very difficult to distinguish what elements are in the foreground versus background. The demon at the center of it all gets lost more than once amidst surroundings that are very similar in color. Even greater variation of shades of red would have helped considerably here.

In addition to the horror imagery, an issue that is heavily dedicated to character examination requires those characters to be expressive, at least to the point of understandable emotions. Jones does a very good job here. Kwon and Tsang are quite expressive. Jones captures nuances of fear and anger, both as separate extremes and as overlapping feelings. Unfortunately Jones isn’t quite as successful in differentiating the two characters via their facial details. If not for their different clothing, it would be difficult to tell them apart.

Using black text on white fill for dialogue bubbles is standard. Not necessarily standard is the same plain choice for caption boxes. Ray smartly sticks to the black on white motif for all human dialogue whether in bubble or caption. The white is a welcome relief amidst the dark, especially the not well-differentiated reds. For the demon’s dialogue Ray chooses white text on black fill. The black dialogue bubbles mostly stand out, but even when they get a little lost, the white text jumps off the page. Despite some overall coloring difficulties with the art, the text narrative is never difficult to follow.