Comic Strip Review: O Human Star Volume Two by Blue Delliquanti
This review contains SPOILERS for Volume One; you may want to read my review of that volume first.
On a slightly alternate Earth, roboticist Brendan Pinsky finds his life turning upside down–again, when a robot that looks and acts exactly like his old partner Alastair Sterling turns up on his doorstep. This is understandably disturbing, as he watched Al die sixteen years ago, “Al” doesn’t know who made him, or why, the last thing he remembers is coughing up blood shortly before “his” death.
In this volume, Brendan attempts to track down who made the robot Al. Al discovers that he is practically worshiped by the synthetic beings community (he did after all create the “emulator” that gives them self-awareness) and is uncomfortable with that. And Brendan’s daughter Sulla bonds with her new friend group before she accidentally reveals she’s not human.
In the differently-tinted flashbacks (reddish for present day, bluish for the past…except for Sulla’s personal memories, which are greenish), we learn more about the two men’s past relationship and how they came to be the fathers of self-aware robots.
While Al’s predicament is sympathetic, we can see why he and Brendan often had a difficult time in their relationship. Al is a secretive person, not just about his sexuality, but almost all aspects of his past. Even several years into their partnership, Brendan has to drag basic information out of Al, and Alistair keeps the seriousness of his illness from Brendan until it’s far too late.
Brendan carries some guilt with his grief, as the last words he said to a conscious Alistair were angry ones, not realizing Al was ill and not just distracted. He then copied Al’s mind while he was dying and attempted to download him into a robot body. The resulting self-aware robot had Al’s scientific genius, but not his personal memories, and eventually became Brendan’s daughter Sulla. Brendan loves his daughter but doesn’t always understand her.
Sulla is a young person trying to navigate her own identity. She can pass for human, usually, but also enjoys her robotic body’s capabilities. She’s been homeschooled and is only now trying to make friends her own chronological age. Sulla’s thrilled to finally meet her second father, but his presence is bringing up complex emotions and trace memories she doesn’t know how to deal with.
The exact nature of how robots fit into society is unclear. They have rights, but there’s a robot “neighborhood.” Human-passing robots like Al and Sulla are rare because the materials like realistic skin and hair are so expensive.
The art remains good, and the location is recognizable as a slightly alternate Minneapolis. The cast diversity remains strong. Of particular interest to me is the defense department funding person, Colonel Lee. Unusually for the science fiction genre, he’s not a villain who wants to use the emulator technology to build weapons, but is much more interested int the medical uses.
There’s a backup story about Sulla at thirteen, when she gets a female-shaped body for the first time and picks her name.
Content notes: Partial male nudity in a sexual context. Alistair dies in the flashback. Mention of child abuse and self-harm. A man gets handsy with an unwilling woman at a party. Older teens should be able to handle it just fine; some conservative parents might find the themes of the story disturbing.
This is an interesting story that uses the SFnal premise well. The full webcomic is up on the internet, but buying these collected volumes helps the artist pay for webhosting, and then you have a copy for the times you don’t have an internet connection. Recommended to science fiction fans and those interested in questions of identity.
