If Ancestral Recall #2 was the perfect buffet, then issue #3 is the perfect after-dinner conversation.
Because it’s here that Melvin Waring’s story gets fully and completely real in a decidedly big way. It’s the moment where our loving but isolated painter really sees himself as not just some guy searching for his wife, but someone part of some larger existential and cultural experience and journey. And even if it hits more intimately than ever before, there’s still massive social and cultural issues being addressed with the utmost care and interest.
But first there’s those pesky robot dogs.
That extended action scene is effectively the backbone of this whole dang issue (thanks to clever plotting by writer Jordan Clark), giving us the general structure and intensity to facilitate a lot of Melvin’s own realizations across Ancestral Recall #3. Artist Atagun Ilhan continues to do some wonderful things with the near-future aesthetic, and these cranky, chomping robot dogs are the right balance of futuristic and animalistic to facilitate an important theme of this entire book (the threat of the future, and how it’s coming at us faster and faster to muck up our connection with the past).
Courtesy of Ahoy Comics.
Plus, Ilhan (alongside colorist Pippa Bowland) just does an interesting job with choosing how he choreographs and emphasizes Myran and Melvin as they maneuver through the city. It’s all about the right angles and fostering a sense of robust intimacy, and that gives this conflict real stakes while allowing it to achieve peaks and valleys of texture and interest as to facilitate a properly interesting span across all 32 pages. I’m usually not a fan of big issue-wide events/happenings, but the pacing and visual wonders here kept my interest because it played like this increasingly nuanced moment of storytelling.
And as viscerally exciting as the chase proves to be, it still left room for those massively important personal developments for Melvin to take root amid the adrenaline surge. To evade the dogs, Melvin channels Bill Pickett, the first black Hollywood cowboy. But Pickett doesn’t just give Melvin his skills/power — Melvin has an emotional connection to Pickett, as he grew up worshiping and recreating the tricks of this bull-riding legend. It feels like the first such instance of that across Ancestral Recall — a moment where the past isn’t just a tool for our lead but this thing that resonates with him deeply and personally.
In that way, Melvin is elevated — not only does he gain significant visual heft and might in a moment where rhe needs it most, but he sees himself in the grander context of history. And that pulls him out of himself even further as he recognizes the role he now plays in this new, ever-changing world, his duty to his culture/ancestors, his power as a person who doesn’t always need his wife to excel, and generally his own otherwise heroic possibilities.
Courtesy of Ahoy Comics.
There’s another moment, too, when Melvin must ditch the horse for a bicycle. (That goodbye with the horse will stir some feelings and also adds to Melvin’s growing self-confidence.) It’s here that he meets up with black cycling pioneer Kittie Knox, who helps him get up a rather steep hill away from the dogs. But mostly she reminds him that this larger journey he’s on is no mere marathon or sprint but a relay. That’s a solid reminder not only his place culturally — you’re a chain in some larger lineage of greatness, Melvin — but that he must also work with others and pass that on accordingly.
And that’s mostly what he does in the rest of the issue as he makes Myran drive a car for part of this chase. Sure, she’s never done it before, but it speaks to how we must engage and believe in others, and how by doing so, Melvin was empowering this young girl. In that way, it makes Myran feel more robust and real within Ancestral Recall — she’s part of this grand journey, too, and by being forced to step out of her own comfort zone, she’s both maturing and also engaging with Melvin in new and vital ways. It’s a small but mighty way their relationship further elevates this book as beyond just the already appealing June-Melvin dynamic.
Courtesy of Ahoy Comics.
And speaking of June, she’s clearly got her own ongoing concerns. As the creators revealed in Ancestral Recall #2, she’s stuck in the future at the mercy of the MLC company. On the one hand, there’s something important about June feeling powerless — she’s so dang strong for Melvin, and it’s nice for her to get to be the one who is rescued because, dammit, she deserves that kind of emotional support as her hubby steps up. But she’s also responsible for facilitating an important development for this book, and what exactly is going on with the technology and AI elements. Those have felt a little tenuous to me so far, so its glad to see them develop while letting Melvin have ample page time.
It’s not fully clear quite yet, but these future moments have a few key points of value. Once again from a visual standpoint, it not only shows us great near-future vibes but there’s more dystopian undertones and technological advancements across issue #3. And those not only complicate our relationship with some vaguely threatening future but also get us thinking about how exactly things are moving (blindly, furiously) toward the unknown.
Courtesy of Ahoy Comics.
Similarly, June learns part of the role that humans and pet companions (like Myrna’s cartoonishly adorable panda) play in MLC’s schemes, and what it all might mean. For one, I appreciate that this element doesn’t just occur strategically, but unfurls without feeling overly complicated and/or needlessly involved. Mostly, it’s done in a way that picks up on this issue’s ideas about communities and journeys — that we play a role in what’s to come, and only through our understanding and humanity can we maybe move forward in a way that actually serves us. Like June (and really Melvin), the outcomes remain to be seen, but now we have more knowledge in which to act.
And that, my comics dining partners, really feels like the many important accomplishments of Ancestral Recall #3. At this point, the book’s not just a black-oriented Dial H for Hero, a story about a man searching for his wife, and/or some piece of speculative sci-fi (that’s increasingly prescient). No, it’s something all together more direct and intimate, a story about how this is a narrative featuring and told by so many of us.
Courtesy of Ahoy Comics.
It is unwaveringly and undeniably a black-led story (as it should be), but even a damn fool could learn something about genuinely respecting your past and believing in yourself as a facilitator of life and culture if we’re going to prosper and/or avoid a future where we’ve been wholly mitigated.
It’s a book, ultimately, about paying attention before we all pay the dang price, and told through the lens of black Americans so that maybe some of this resonates all that more readily. It’s also still the story of some lovely and charming people trying to keep their little circle alive and well. And through that mix of focuses, perspectives, energies, and ideas, Ancestral Recall is becoming an ever more filling and hearty meal for the human soul.
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