Far Sector #2: Thrilling Fun on the Edge of the Universe

Far Sector #2 is a much cleaner read than even the first issue. It remains relatively exposition heavy but out of necessity, to be sure. The notion of the Emotion Exploit and its effects on the various species occupying the City Enduring was going to inherently need a fair amount of explanation and while I tend to prefer more organic storytelling, the exposition was handled here quite well thanks to Jemisin’s solid handle on a distinct sense of voice for Jo. Jo is rounding into quite the dynamic character thanks to the juxtaposition between her dialogue and interior monologue. It will be quite interesting to see what levels of depth Jo reaches by the end of this twelve-issue run and who, if anybody, picks up the reigns. As we’ve seen with Jessica Cruz in Justice League Odysseyover the past year, a strong establishment for a character does not necessarily mean the next creator will be able to adapt that into future stories.

Jamal Campbell’s art is… did I already say breathtaking? I’ll say it again. Campbell has unequivocally risen to the status of elite artist in the industry and Far Sector gives him even more room to impress than his previous work on Naomi given the strangeness of the City Enduring and its denizens.

Speaking to the denizens of the City Enduring, Jemisin seems to be constructing a very interesting social critique with this book. Jo’s statements regarding being “far… so far” seems to bely an undercurrent of similarity between her culture and that of the far-flung city. The repression of emotion for fear of constant turmoil and crime speaks directly to situations we see today, where emotion seems to run rampant yet empathy and sympathy seem to be on the decline in the contemporaneous Earth. The notion of feeling words that permeate our language is an intriguing one as it points towards fault-lines in the Emotion Exploit or at the very least, a sort of cognitive dissonance between speech and intent. This detail will be one to keep a close eye on, particularly with the introduction of Switchoff, a drug that restores emotions.