Far, far in the future, the sun has expanded in size, rendering the land on Earth too hot for humanity to survive there. Underwater cities were constructed, but this is a stopgap solution, and so probes were sent out into the galaxy to try to find somewhere else capable of supporting human life.
In one city, Salus, lives the Caine family: father Johl, mother Stel, and the children, Della, Marik, and Tajo. They're generally happy, although life is no longer easy. But on a routine hunting trip outside the city, they are attacked by pirates known as "Scurvies." Johl is killed and Della and Tajo are abducted, leaving Stel to raise Marik and hope, always hope, that someday she might see her daughters again, and that they all might find some way to survive. And then, years later, one of the probes returns to Earth and might, just might, have brought back good news.
Low is a comic series from Image Comics, written by Rick Remender and drawn by Greg Tocchini. It started publication in 2014; there was a fair amount of Schedule Slip, but the series ultimately concluded in December 2020
This comic provides examples of:
- After the End: The story begins after the sun has grown so large that the surface of Earth has become too hot to be habitable. What's left of humanity has retreated to cities beneath the ocean to survive.
- Beast Man: Various types, including insect, shark, and rodent.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Many of the inhabitants of the surface world at this point are massive insects and arachnids.
- Big Damn Heroes: Tajo shows up in Voldin just in time to save Della from a hit squad. It's later subverted when Della shows up in the helm suit just as Lena is about to cut out Tajo's eye. She tells Tajo to save herself, then blows a hole in the side of their submarine and leaves.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Lena, who worms her way into Della's and Tajo's confidence by claiming she was Marik's wife, then tries to kill both of them and reveals she's Roln's daughter.
- Body Backup Drive: Unintentionally done by Marik. His personality is copied by his robot ally IO, but only as a means of IO ingratiating himself with the Caines to then sabotage and destroy Salus as part of his directives from The Black Dome. Stel's use of the Droln Shells causes Marik's personality to assert itself as the dominant one within IO, effectively resurrecting him
- Boom, Headshot!: One of the ministers in Voldin gets his head blown off for even suggesting that the returned probe might have brought back good news.
- Clarke's Third Law: Liberally applied, due to at minimum 10,000 years having passed in technological development. Plus human technology prior to the sinking of the Domes was powerful enough to create the Helm Suits, which have a range of abilities and allow the user to survive in effectively any conditions as long as its powered, and can reduce an entire room full of people into meat cubes without any visible weapons or projectiles.
- Crapsack World: Humanity has been forced to live under the sea for thousands of years, and technology, society, and resources are close to the breaking point. And life evolved on the surface into numerous new sentient species, including The Swarm and a society of rodent people. Most dangerously, the remnants of the humans left behind, who genetically engineered themselves to survive on the irradiated and sun blasted surface after being abandoned by the Domes 10,000 years previously
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: The Black Dome. The Helm King in particular has managed to hold onto a grudge for ten thousand years, actively exterminating the very Domes he helped submerge out of revenge for being abandoned after doing so
- Deadly Nosebleed: Stel bleeds from her nose and ears after getting hit with a blast of radiation from a bizarre moth-like creature on the surface world.
- Determinator: Stel never, ever gives up. Marik gets in on the act, too.
- Eye Scream: Roln, a Scurvy, cuts out Johl's eye because the eye is needed to activate the helm suit. Later on he does the same thing to Marik, and Lena tries to do it to Tajo.
- Giant Enemy Crab: In Poluma there are "gladiator games" that consist of throwing people into a huge tank where a massive crab promptly rips them apart.
- Gorn: The helm suit is capable of slicing multiple people to pieces in an instant. Also the advanced technology and weapons mean frequently foes will need to be rendered into meaty chunks before they are truly down for the count, most notably The Helm King, whose entire head is disintegrated before his cyborg body falls
- Hope Spot: Outlawed in universe in the Russian-themed fascist dictatorship dome of Voldin. The very idea of sharing anything that might give people is punishable by death, under the Insane Troll Logic that nothing good can ever happen, so anything that inspires hope is doomed to failure. This belief is so ingrained that when Voldin, after detecting a probe with coordinates to a habitable world returning to earth, chooses to genocide Salus rather than let them leave earth for another world. All because the mere fact that Salus is launching means they have "hope" that they've found another habitable planet
- Hero Antagonist: Lieutenant Wesal has been working for years within the government of Voldin, trying to preserve beauty and culture and preparing for the day when he could overthrow this truly monstrous fascist regime. Dvonyen, an agent of that regime and a murderer, is a protagonist by virtue of being one of the Caines, but there’s really no reason at all to view Wesal as a bad guy.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Frequent, due to the dwindling resources. Johl, despite surviving his Eye Scream, has his wife Stel Mercy Kill him so she will have enough air to make the trip home. Zem attempts this three times but fails to die each time, due to Big Damn Heroes every time. Mertali attempts this twice, but is able to cut a bloody swathe through her foes both times. Della follows through, sacrificing her life by using the Helm suit to launch Salus out of Earth's atmosphere and gravity well, and off into space
- High-Altitude Interrogation: Minister Dvonyen does this to someone while investigating who might have leaked word of the returned probe.
- Horse of a Different Color: On the surface large, chocobo-like birds are used as mounts.
- Mechanical Horse: Minister Dvonyen has a mechanical polar bear she rides around.
- Mercy Kill: Minister Dvonyen (a.k.a Della Caine) kills her lover, Kelli, because she was creating unauthorized works of art and would be tortured to death if she was caught. (Though Kelli clearly suspects Dvonyen is only doing it to save herself, and given some of Dvonyen's other actions this is probably true.)
- Mushroom Samba: "Cream" is a drug that causes hallucinations; it seems to be typically used by the people of Salus to forget about their increasingly hopeless lives.
- My Greatest Failure: Zem Gotir was, by his own admission, a monster, a raping, murdering pirate in Roln's fleet, but his worst crime was selling his wife and child into slavery to cover his gambling debts. Stel and Mertali can hardly even look at him after he reveals that.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: Vampire variety. Also Mertali, who is able to move on land like a serpant but must wear a suit full of seawater to do so.
- Original Position Fallacy: Seems to be the standard operating mentality of Poluma. Everyone there is fine with gambling on rigged games of chance, throwing debtors into slavery where they're forced to fight in the arena, etc, until they're on the losing end of a bet. Notably they all turn on Roln after Marik points out he's been rigging the arena against all of them.
- Parents as People: Stel's optimism is inspiring but also grating on her family, especially after her daughters endure a decade of slavery. Johl's honorbound compunctions resulted in bringing his children into a dangerous situation unprepared, which resulted in their kidnapping. Stel's ongoing mission also results in her encountering Zem and falling in love with him. Zem is the man who sold Della into slavery. Naturally she's unhappy when she sees who her mother has shacked up with.
- Pineapple Surprise: Dvonyen manages to pull the pin from a grenade on the belt of one of the soldiers sent to kill her. The explosion kills him and several others, but in order to escape it herself she is forced to jump down the middle of a stairwell, severely injuring her.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: Tajo uses the helm suit to exterminate an entire dome of millions of people. While she's called on this a couple of times, every survivor of the dome says that every one of the millions of people who lived there deserved it. Meanwhile Lena fighting to do the same to Salus in revenge is treated as a sign of her evilness, even though we're repeatedly shown that the only difference between Salus and Poluma is that Poluma has slavery. All of the other debauchery, absolute lack of concern for the well being of the impoverished, and all while the rich and powerful have orgies and steal food for themselves, were shown to be ubiquitous in both Domes
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Zem gets so annoyed at Stel nagging him about whether he'll be able to fix a transport that he finally says, "Shut. Up."
- Ruthless Modern Pirates: The "Scurvies" are a truly despicable lot and pose a great danger to civilized people.
- Redemption Equals Death: Zig zagged to truly legendary proportions. Zem is a former slaver who sold his own family into slavery to try and cover his gambling debts until he was finally thrown into the arena as a slave himself. Despite believing he will perform a Heroic Sacrifice and earn his redemption no less than three times, he survives. Della meanwhile plays it straight, after spending all her post-kidnapping appearances doing truly horrible things as a result of her own trauma, including trying to genocide Salus as it's leaving earth for a new habitable planet, she uses the last of her fuel reserves to pilot the Helm suit and act as an emergency booster to launch Salus out of Earth's gravity field and atmosphere
- Sea Monster: There are some strange, strange things in the depths of the ocean by now.
- Shark Man: Seen in Poluma, one of the underwater cities.
- Thoughtcrime: In the city of Voldin, optimism is a crime punishable by instant death.
- Underwater City: Where humans have to live now.
- Vapor Wear: Dvonyen wears a jacket that has a Navel-Deep Neckline. When it gets torn away during a fight, it's revealed that the remaining garment on her upper body covers her arms and abdomen but leaves her breasts bare.
- While Rome Burns: The ruling council of Salus spends their time in debauched partying, taking Cream and having sex, because they believe there's no hope.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: Stel Caine's defining character trait is her unshakable belief that another inhabitable planet will be discovered and humanity will survive.
- Wolverine Claws: Some of the underwater survival suits have these.
- Wretched Hive: Poluma, one of the cities, is full of Scurvies, and lacks even what passes for law and government in places like Voldin and Salus.
- You Killed My Father: Lena hates Tajo for killing Roln, her father.
