The Wake

  Scott Snyder (Batman- New 52) pens a tale that is one part deep sea thriller and one part high seas sci-fi opera. When an unusual underwater sound is picked up by Homeland Security, oceanographer Lee Archer is whisked to an underwater oil mining station off the coast of Alaska that would make some of James Bond's greatest enemies blush. There, she and a team of experts come face to face with a terror from the deep that is as old as the earth herself. It's big, it's bad, and it's mean AND it's calling for mother!

    The story then jumps 200-years into the future in which over 95% of the earth is now covered with water and the seas are governed by pirates, makeshift democracies, and the same underwater terror that Lee Archer meet underneath Alaska's shoreline. Our hero is a young girl name Leeward, who with her pet dolphin, undergoes raids on the merfolk, harvesting their heads for a neurotoxin that's being fabricated into a designer drug of the surviving elite. But Leeward's troubles are just beginning when she intercepts a radio broadcast from a woman asking for rescue from a sunken sub: one Dr. Lee Archer!

    I completely enjoyed this title, but the first act was my favorite. It was like Aliens meet the Abyss with some Peter Benchley thrown in for good measure. The second act was literally Waterworld- only there's not Kevin Costner, nobody drinks their own pee, and it was actually worth reading. There were some elements of Barbarella and Mad Max thrown in as well. But it's the chilling action of the first half that is just a little bit better than the metaphysical tone of act two.

   There's a bit of a mystery behind the radio broadcast from Dr. Archer and while it gets explained some bits of interest do not. For example, there's a massive tower of ice in the middle of the world's largest remaining supply of fresh water. It's not really explained what its purpose is nor why it attracts birds to their frigid doom. Maybe it was just filler or maybe Snyder hopes to one-day return to the Wake universe and explore it further. I just refuse to believe that this tower is just a mere set piece. A frantic ending to this story also make for some serious plot holes but to expound on them would reveal some major spoilers.

  Lastly, let's talk about the art. WOW! Rarely does artwork creep me out (sure I've been saddened on occasion by some tragic scenes but never scared until now), but these mer-creatures are truly frightening. They are some bad dudes that I hope never to swim across on my next trip to the beach. Kudos to Sean Murphy for giving me nightmares.

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.