Review: Astronaut Down
Douglas Spitzer is no ordinary astronaut. His destination is not outer space but different realities. His consciousness has been transmitted out of his body and into an alternate version of himself in a parallel universe... in which the world is not dying.
In his native version of Earth, a quantum anomaly threatens to end all life. Reality itself is infected with a cancer which has spread outward from a point source at a Russian proton accelerator. Ninety per cent of the world has fallen, the remaining cities huddled behind barriers. But the barriers are failing...
Douglas is one of the candidates chosen to travel to an alternate reality in which a 'cure' can be found for the quantum mutation. The 'astronaut' who survives the highly experimental procedure has the opportunity to save his world, but the personal cost is very high.
Have the project directors made the right choice? Does Douglas have the 'right stuff' to make the necessary sacrifices?
Astronaut Down by writer James Patrick and artist Rubine is a headlong plunge into a nightmare vision of a world being eaten alive by a breakdown in its fundamental physical laws. Here is a devastating infection - like a pandemic - caused by science and with a potential cure that can be provided by science.
Not everyone is behind the best effort to resolve the situation, however; there is a religious movement that sees the reality cancer as God's judgement against a sinful world. In their eyes, the best thing to do is nothing, in the hope that God will see their humility and reward their faith. This stance has acted like a secondary infection, slowing down efforts to work against the mutation and allowing it to spread further. The parallels with the anti-vaccine movement are all too clear. No matter how bad things get, there are always those willing to throw petrol on the flames
Rubine's art captures the jolting juxtapositions of the story as the ordinary and the horrific are overlaid, reality shifting and shattering. The astronauts - courageous and all-too vulnerable - are called upon to make the toughest possible decisions for the highest possible stakes.
The surreal green hellscape is slowly drowning the Earth, like a biblical flood, at least in one universe. Our hero has the chance to deliver salvation... if he is willing to pay a price higher than he ever expected.
Zak Webber
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