Primordial: 12/25/22

Primordial by Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino (Artist) and Dave Stewart (Artist) (2022) is an alternate history, speculative fiction take on the early days of the space race. It begins with a scientist being called in to decide which pieces of equipment from the space program since it's been discontinued.

Rather than trying to send people into space, both the USSR and the United States have shuttered their programs after the deaths of the animals they sent into space: Laika, a dog, and a pair of primates, Able and Baker.

Curiosity, though, leads the scientist to Laika's trainer. And that's where things get weird in a typical Jeff Lemire fashion. Time is never just linear in his stories. Space is never a coherent thing. Death isn't necessary death, either.

For the three animals, they've been kidnapped, a la Flight of the Navigator (1986). And like Joey, relativity means they won't get home when they left, even though they know the way home. Unlike Joey, there's no easy fix, no FTL. So their story — Laika's reunion with her beloved trainer — will take her human the remainder of her life.

In the background of this dog and primates find their way home story, is an alternate history. It's one where the Soviet Union doesn't dissolve and instead manages to spread further into Europe. It's one of a very different political atmosphere.

It's also, like every Lemire comic or graphic novel I've read to date, one that sits on the Road Narrative Spectrum. As this is a joint American / Soviet story, the travelers are in a scarecrow / minotaur dichotomy (99). Their destination is utopia (FF) — a place outside of time and space — in a hope to reunite with the Laika and the apes. Their route there is an offroad one (66).

Five stars

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