Lonely Receiver #1: I Built You So I Could Love You

Lonely Receiver #1 hits the ground running with an introspective and futuristic look at the consequences of artificially constructed yet genuine love and leaves readers with a horrific cliffhanger that shows we are just getting started.

There have been many stories that attempt to tackle the concept of falling in love with Artificial Intelligence, but few who have navigated the intricacies of such deep emotion with this level of tact and respect. There are a lot of great aspects about Lonely Receiver #1 that set it apart from any other romance or sci-fi, but for me, it was the dialogue and character interaction that truly elevated the entire issue. This isn’t an action packed spectacle and it isn’t meant to be. Instead, the narrative relies on the power of drama and the premise of a love with unexplored boundaries. For this to truly work, it would require both dialogue and expression that is difficult to pull off, but this creative team does so with relative ease.

There are quite a few poignant lines in Lonely Receiver #1 that will have you searching your own feelings as the relationship between Catrin and Rhion unravels. It’s about more than just representation, it’s about the exploration and expectations of the life partner role and how love, for good or bad, helps it to take shape. The concept of The Garden finds sexual prominence but doesn’t fall into cliche lust tropes and the artwork does a magnificent job of balancing artistic beauty with insightful nuance. The neon aesthetic and adult themes translate well in the first issue, but even the artwork truly finds success in the dynamics of character interaction.

While Thompson and Hickman both excel quite well in crafting an intriguing story and executing with precision, it was particularly awesome to see Simon Bowland given an opportunity to really inject uniqueness and depth into the storytelling on letters. They are organized and concise but they bring a design element that punctuates moments of the story in great ways and shows what a letterer can really add to the medium. It’s just high quality execution from everyone involved.

Lonely Receiver #1 is a book that certainly isn’t for everyone and that’s okay. For fans of both sci-fi and romance it’s a series that is certainly a can’t miss, however, it’s also a worthy read for anyone interested in a story that approaches human emotion and artificial understanding in an honestly thought provoking way. It’s adult and unafraid to go places you don’t often see in comics, but it’s also thrilling and entertaining, making for a book that I highly recommend adding to anyone’s collection.