Rain in Tears by Mao (Mini Kus! #136)

Rain in Tears begins with an interesting prompt: “What if Blade Runner’s tools of oppression were used for liberation instead?” There’s a manga-esque quality to Mao’s art, with panels packed with pixelated detail, and perspective shots that lend a sense of speed and movement to the proceedings, befitting the iterative biotech advancements the story plays with. The faces of the human figures are depicted in a very interesting way, partially obscured in either shadow or deliberate modification, like techno-organic visages that almost look like advanced Kabuki-style masks. I enjoyed the inclusion of “Medusa” as a sort of sentient computer program/AI monitoring the experiments with the sea creatures. It feels like cutting-edge speculative fiction, as Medusa makes decisions, either deliberate acts or casual omissions, which result in humans getting caught in the crossfire of blame. It all plays like a cautionary tale that counterpoints and bookends the tech question opening the comic with a more natural dilemma to end on: “Is Nature a benevolent mother taking care of us, or a Lovecraftian horror eating itself up?” Rain in Tears is compelling, playing like technological horror, with caustic yellows and pinks in the art alerting you to the dangerous questions that lie within.