Devolution #3

Devolution, Issue #3 sees Raja and the remaining Marines escaping from Gil's compound on a Blackhawk helicopter, but they are not away from danger.  They land in the web of a spider bigger than the helicopter, itself, and have to dodge pterosaurs and other ancient creatures and giant bugs.  Not only that, but Gil and his troops are hot on their tail.

I'm not sure how the DVO-8 bomb works, but the devolution of their world seems to have brought forth total monsters instead of creatures that actually lived.  In our world, before spiders evolved, there were giant insects, yes, but as soon as the spiders hit land, they ate them out of existence.  The inclusion of both giant spiders and giant insects is done merely to be cool, therefore, and there's nothing wrong with that.

As to why the DVO-8 bomb would be set off, I can offer the following explanation: one view of an "evolved" society is one without God or gods.  Humankind naturally evolved from a polytheist society to a henotheist society to a monotheist society; we've been losing gods for thousands of years.  All except a billion Hindus, of course.  The question is why Hinduism has survived for so many millennia.  The answer is twofold: literature and slavery.  While Hindus have been evolving past slavery and predestination for decades, if not a century, the vast literature available to Hindus is both rich and engaging.   Krishna: The Beautiful Legend of God should be required reading for anyone who wants to create literature, be it short stories, novels, or humble reviews of comic books.

I spent almost two months in India in my youth, mostly in the state of Orissa, where my then-girlfriend was studying the local dance traditions.  I did get out to see most of the temples and other buildings, but I have to admit that after living out of a backpack for the good part of a year, I mostly wanted to sit on the sofa all day and watch TV.  I suffered from tremendous depression when I was in India, and my attempts at self-medication only made things more complicated.  Of course, this was in 1995 and 1996, and I haven't even had a cup of beer in almost eight years.

I've gone through the first three issues of Devolution this week.  My respect for Rick Remender is such that I bought the first two issues just because the covers were cool and without much thought.  Two days later, Issue #3 came out, and I bought it before I'd even read Issue #2.  I could have bought the trade paperback in a few months, but I just like comics.