In this review of Event Horizon: Dark Descent #5, the tale comes to an explosive end, complete with demons, confrontation of the past, and even a lesson in quantum mechanics.
Event Horizon: Dark Descent #5
Writer: Christian Ward
Artist: Tristan Jones
Main Cover: Jeffrey Alan Love
Variant Cover: Darick Robertson
Pages: 32 pages
Release Date: December 24, 2025
This review contains spoilers
As we open Event Horizon: Dark Descent #5, we see a flashback to a little bit before the jump point. Sara and Jen are talking about their reasons for coming to space. Sara’s fleeing her abusive husband, and she discusses just how controlling he was.
Now, past the jump point, John isn’t quite dead yet. He’s blaming himself for this whole disaster, and tries to send a message to the two women to destroy the gravity drive and the ship itself.
As they prepare to set the charges to blow the drive and the ship to Hell (as opposed to the Hell they’ve been experiencing), we catch up with Delvin. He’s covered with new scars and is sent to kill Jen (there’s this light following her that Paimon just doesn’t seem to trust), and ensure that the gravity drive doesn’t get destroyed. Yusef is resurrected to bring the drive back online.
Knowing that there’s a strong chance that they won’t survive this, Jen and Sara talk about anything they’d like off their chests beforehand. Jen tells her that she doesn’t believe in religion, really…but has been thinking about “Spooky Distance”, and how she’d had a falling out with her sister Emma. Emma ended up in the hospital, dying before Jen got to her. And she’d wondered if, thanks to Spooky Distance, she’d wound up dragging her along.
Delvin attacks, with Yusef and Paimon showing up. As one of the demonic entities goes after Sara, Paimon advances on Jen…only for a bright light to intervene: Emma. It turned out that she did follow her sister.
As the charges blow, Jen is blasted into space. But unlike the other casualties, she can be at peace. Her sister assures her that she’s earned her forgiveness and can be at peace.
An epilogue catches up to William, who wakes to his dead wife calling for him to find her. On their ship (which is being repaired by demonic forces).
I’m thinking Event Horizon: Dark Descent #5 was an excellent ending to this chapter of the Event Horizon story. It leads into the original movie’s plotline quite well while still bringing closure to part of its own story.
Most of the other chapters had put a spotlight on a doomed character, telling a little bit more of why they were running from Earth. Since there were two that had not met their doom yet by this point, we get that for both Jen and Sara, though Jen is the only member of the crew to die a relatively peaceful death. The last we see of most of the crew, they’re surrounded by that Hell aesthetic. But Jen? She’s bathed in the light of her sister’s soul, getting that sense of closure she hadn’t been able to on Earth.
Also, running from Earth in the first place after losing one’s twin—their mirror image with a life of their own—is definitely understandable. And knowing that there was a chance of saving her had she not hesitated so badly twists the knife a bit.
While Jen’s backstory may have been a major crux of this installment, I appreciated getting further detail on Sara’s history as well. The fact that her husband was English while she was Chinese adds a little bit of subtext to their marital issues. Him being all controlling and questioning her about her conversations with another man… all I could think of was British Imperialism over history. He may have tried to apologize after causing her to stress-vomit, but her deciding not to deal with him anymore was probably for the best.
Sure, what she wound up dealing with in the story itself is worse, but her reasons for leaving Earth still make sense.
Art-wise, I’m loving the visual contrast between Paimon and all Hell-dimension elements and the pure ethereal light coming from Emma. Seeing Paimon himself visibly recoil from Emma’s appearance? Even knowing that this story leads into the original Event Horizon plot, it’s still very satisfying to see something cause Paimon any amount of pain/discomfort.
Final Thoughts
Event Horizon: Dark Descent #5 has everything going for it: lovely visuals, tension, closure…even a mini-lesson in Quantum Mechanics. Definitely check this out if you’re a fan. The full series has been consistently awesome, and this is a great way to cap it off and lead into the initial story so many love and fear.
