Why LOW is high on my list

According to astronomers, our sun (Sol) will begin expanding into a red giant in a few million years.  It will expand just past Earth's orbit and swallow our planet whole.  By that time humanity will be completely forgotten.  For the characters in Rick Remender's Low, Sol's expansion began much sooner than expected.  Humanity quickly retreated beneath the ocean's surface to avoid Sol's harmful radiation and sent out probes to find a new habitable planet.  Tens of thousands of years later, one probe has returned.

When I read the summary for this comic book series I was certainly interested.  The astronomy nut in me was grabbed by the scientific premise, my eyes were fixed on the art style, and the reader in me was excited to get into a new story.  When I went to purchase the first story arc collection, the cashier's face lit up.

"I'm going to save you some time and trips here pal," he said, walking back to the stand where I picked up the first volume.  He grabbed the next two story arcs in the series and put them on the counter.  "You're going to want to read this entire series.  It's not a fun story at all, but that's what makes it great.  It's a story about hope, and holding onto it despite everything and everyone telling you to let go and give up."

Needless to say I bought all three volumes, and later would pick up the individual issues of the next story arc.  That cashier certainly wasn't wrong.  The story isn't fun, and it isn't meant to be.  People in the story fuck up, they make terribly human mistakes, they hold on to that hope of finding a new home and never let go regardless of the gargantuan hurdles trying to stop them.

Low isn't a story for everyone.  It's for a specific audience; one that can identify with the struggles the characters found in the pages go through.  For those people, this story is one they need to read.