Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
‘Low Orbit’ by Kazimir Lee follows Azar, a shy high school student moves to a new town with her mom, while her father stays back at their old place in New York to wrap things up and sell their flat. Azar likes girls, something she is comfortable enough to share with neighbor Tristan, but not with her parents. The story tracks Azar’s increasingly strained relationship with her mother, as the teen struggles to come out to both her parents.
The story becomes disjointed when creator Kazimir Lee starts to divert from Azar’s story by inserting large excerpts of descriptions from a fantasy novel Azar is shown to be reading. The ‘book within book’ trope might be fascinating for some, but did not work for me, even though it acts as a source of comfort for the protagonist.
Interestingly, the book Azar becomes obsessed with, is written by Mr. Wathe, Azar’s landlord. She stumbles across a copy lying around the house and quickly becomes absorbed in its fantasy world. Mr. Wathe is also the father of Tristan, a teenager who happens to be Azar’s only real friend in the new town. The first few pages establish a playfully comfortable friendship between the two of characters.
After a particularly ugly argument with her mother Dina, Azar temporarily moves in with the Wathes, though the rebellion loses some of its dramatic flair considering they literally live upstairs. Dina quietly goes along with it, likely comforted by the fact that her daughter is still close enough for her to watch over. Or else it is extremely hard to imagine an Asian-American parents letting their child stay out of the house after a fight.
‘Low orbit’ here probably means a metaphor for how Azar just circles around life, never fully landing somewhere secure or fully escaping into freedom either. Her character feels emotionally stuck between worlds: between childhood and adulthood, honesty and secrecy, rebellion and obedience, queerness and the expectations placed on her by her conservative upbringing. She is moving, but not really progressing confidently. Getting herself lost in Mr Wathe’s fantasy novel is her way of escaping the gravity of her reality, it allows her to fly into the fictional planet, leaving behind her worries for a while. Although, like I mentioned earlier, the large excerpts from novel were more distracting than absorbing.
The artwork in ‘Low Orbit’ is expressive and engaging, depicting its characters in a grounded, relatable way rather than making them look like the usual glossy, impossibly perfect comic-book protagonists. Azar is a short, heavyset young woman who mostly wears loose, casual clothes along with a hijab. Tristan, on the other hand, is tall, lanky, and reminded me a little of Shaggy from Scooby-Doo.
Kazimir Lee uses pleasing pastel colors throughout ‘Low Orbit’ and often lets a few panels carry the story forward without stuffing them with dialogues. In some pages will have Azar simply walking around her neighborhood to give one a sense of where she lives. Although readers expecting detailed artwork or bright vibrant colors might find the world-building in ‘Low Orbit’ slightly dull and mundane.
The climactic pages of ‘Low Orbit’ see Azar going away to New York with the Wathes for a comic-book convention and a chance to meet her dad. This little trip brings in a lot of little twists, including some romantic attraction between two characters which was super contrived.
Overall, thus graphic novel is an interesting one-time read, even though the ending is messy and open-ended.
Rating for ‘Low Orbit’: 3 stars on 5.
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