In this review of Event Horizon: Dark Descent #2, there’s something wrong with the Gravity Drive, as the crew sees just what the actual hell is on the other side of the jump point.
Event Horizon: Dark Descent #2
Writer: Christian Ward
Artist: Tristan Jones
Main Cover: Jeffrey Alan Love
Variant Cover: Riley Rossmo
Pages: 32 pages
Release Date: October 8, 2025
This review contains spoilers
Event Horizon: Dark Descent #2 starts off right away with a glimpse at Devlin’s history. His father wasn’t the gentlest guy out there, and taught him to fight. He’d also pushed his son away, and we see a montage of his time on his own, right up to the point of the accident that got him on law enforcement’s radar.
After the title page, we’re back to the present, and it’s immediately apparent to the crew that something is very not-right. They need to touch base with Nia and Devlin, as well as find out why the Drive seemed to just quit on them.
One crew member has a breakdown, and Quinn is asked to help him. But Quinn’s more in tune with machines than people. He’s pretty sure that the Drive might actually be alive, breathing, and currently asleep…
Meanwhile, Kwon is tracking down Nia, and finds a trail of blood. Fearing the worst, she follows it.
As Quinn investigates the Drive some more, we learn a bit of his backstory, how he’d retreated to working with machines to avoid arguments between his parents. Next thing he knows, the Drive wakes up again. And with its awakening comes a new (or rather, ancient) problem by the name of Paimon. He introduces himself as being in charge, and commands Quinn to give himself a screwdriver labotomy.
Kwon discovers Nia’s body, along with an upset Devlin, expressing remorse for the initial accident. As Kwon tries to parse who he means by “him” when he says he didn’t mean to kill “him”…a hellish vision of the young boy he’d run down (accompanied by one of Nia) appears. And they come bearing a warning: Devlin may not stop with just Nia and the kid.
So, first off, I love that Event Horizon: Dark Descent #2 wasted no time in showing that: “Yeah, something here’s not right…”. Immediately after the title page is when it starts to go awry, and even then, the cold open ended with Devlin seeing that hell dimension, already setting the reader up for what’s coming. At the same time, there was still that build-up to even more distressing elements, like the Gravity Drive being a lot more organic than any highly-advanced piece of tech needs to be. When the tech shows signs of life that it was not in its programming, “running” is the logical course of action…but running is also much easier said than done when one is out in space.
Once again, the contrast between the hellish visions and the ship itself is striking. Red tones versus some with a greenish-blue tint. It definitely helps convey the tonal difference between the two (even in spite of Nia’s death being uncovered).
Also, noticed that Devlin doesn’t appear to show all that much remorse for doing that; the kid he’d run over, yes, but the crewmate whose neck he personally snapped? He could try to claim that as self-defense, but the warning that comes from those visions of her and the kid at the end makes me wonder just how much darker his nature is than he lets on. That could just as easily be Kwon’s own paranoia beginning to kick in, causing her to hear her worst fears about him being put right out in the open.
And then we get to Quinn’s plot thread in Event Horizon: Dark Descent #2, with him reiterating that he’s NOT there to fix people (despite something being seriously wrong with one crewmember). Machines tend to be slightly more predictable than humans, after all. And in all fairness, even a doctor that deals with humans might have a hard time dealing with any part of a ship becoming much more organic than what they’d signed on for.
The fact that there’s a literal King of Hell in the mix (and having some idea of what’s ahead) will definitely make the next three issues an interesting trip.
Final Thoughts
Things in Event Horizon: Dark Descent #2 quickly escalate from tense to freaky, and I’m definitely here for it. If you’re in the mood for demons in space, this may be a book for you.
