Nuclear Power #5 Review
Nuclear Power #5 gives some quiet before the revolution. Nuclear Power #5 is written by Desirée Proctor and Erica Harrell, with art by Lynne Yoshi.
Several months have passed and with the help of Claudia, Lucy, and Lynch those who live outside the American Union prepare for battle. Yet there are concerns that the truth may not be enough to overthrow the Joint Chiefs, and Claudia has her own more personal troubles as her pregnancy nears the end.
Nuclear Power #5 is published by Fanbase Press, and is available from August 18, 2021.
Nuclear Power #5 Story
This issue is largely one of those quiet issue that I laud so much, and I am very glad that it is. This series has been heavy with tension and twists from the start, and it seemed rare that either the characters or readers got a moment to fully sit and process everything. I’m really glad they did it this way, since it means that now we have this moment that we get to see the characters fully deal with everything. There isn’t wasted emotion here, every character has their own things to deal with and they are each given the chance to do so.
This also doesn’t mean that this issue is all quiet moments, it certainly delivers hard on more twists that really help put the story and it’s stakes into context. I was caught off guard by what it threw at me, and I appreciate it doing so. This is not the kind of story that benefits from being entirely predictable and it does it’s best to ensure that isn’t the case. Even a guess at where things may go cannot be made with any certainty.
Perhaps the one thing I would have liked from the issue was a deeper discussion of the theme of all people being fundamentally the same despite their differences, that what separates us is not powerful enough to destroy what unites us. But this is also very much a personal preference because I also feel that it doesn’t need to do this.
It says enough with just a few lines, and this theme plays into the larger context of the series as a whole. Going deeper also would have robbed the story of some of the emotions and I’m very glad we didn’t lose those. Ultimately it balances these points almost perfectly, layering the story as it needs to.
Nuclear Power #5 Art
I have talked a lot about the use of colour in the art in reviews of previous issues, and I did not expect to do so again. Yet then #5 goes and throws me something new to discuss. The use of single colours takes a turn as we jump several months into the future and winter is upon the characters, and the usual green tones used for outside the American Union have been replaced with cold blues to reflect the weather.
Yet even beyond that fact the same blue is also used for areas within the AU, in contrast to the different colours in prior issues, reveals a shift as those themes of people united are reflected in the art.
Nuclear Power #5 Conclusion
While this issue is lighter on reveals or moments of action compared to the ones before it, I do feel like it is perhaps the most important so far. Not only does it show the switch of characters moving from passive towards active as they take their lives into their own hands and begin the moves to reveal the truth, it also gives us the emotional core necessary to make the coming conflict hit with real weight. This isn’t a story about fighting, it’s a story about people, and this issue really makes that point.
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