Plunge

I am a huge fan of Joe Hill. I love his comics books and his prose works. But, man, does his stuff creep me out. Joe's father, Stephen King, can cause my wife fitful nights without sleep. It's Joe Hill who keeps me awake at night. 

Plunge is a 6-issue miniseries from the author's Hill House Comics imprint at DC Comics. I was immediately taken by the ocean setting in the Arctic Circle when this book was first announced. I could have requested this book new as floppies with my favorite LCS. But having just finished Hill's latest volume of Locke & Key and the extremely unsettling NOS4A2, I needed a break from Joe Hill's work to build up my nerve again. And then 3 years passed. 

The story sets with a massive tidal wave that has the sent aquatic animals into a fervor. The underwater eruption has caused a missing ship from 1983 to resurface in the Arctic Circle, in waters between Alaska and Russia. And the ghost ship has begun emitting a distress code!

The company that owns the ship, Rococo International, is desperate to recover what remains. The official word from the corporation is that the owner's son was on the ship and wishes to recover his body, along with the rest of the crew. But if there's other items of value to be retrieved on the ship, so be it! With Russia within its rights to claim ownership of the wreckage, time is of the essence to begin the salvage operation. 

Enter the Carpenter Brothers. Their salvage crew doesn't give a crap about the Russians.Taking the job, the crew is joined by Dr. Moriah Lamb, an oceanographer with expertise in the atolls of the Aleutian Islands. Together, the brothers, Dr. Lamb and Rococo VP David Lacome seek to find out why this ship sunk and subsequently returned 30 years later. What they uncover is a crew, not quite dead, but definitely not alive; with the promise of answers to many of earth's greatest mysteries. But these rewards come with a deadly price. 

Stuart Immonen (Superman: Secret Identity) was the penciller of this work. But if you told me that it was Joe Hill's artistic partner on Locke & Key, Gabriel Rodriguez, I would have bet money... and lost! Immonen's artwork was just as creepy as Hill's writings. But I think if DC's publishing and marketing team hadn't spoiled some of the mystery behind this book, it would have been much more terrifying. 

For one thing, the back cover spoils just who really is behind the resurrection of the mystery ship's crew. The image on the back is from the cover of issue #4. At that point in the story, the culprits had already been identified and thus nothing was really ruined in terms of the plot. But if this was your first real encounter with Plunge and you want to read a synopsis of what this graphic novel is all about, prepare to have a major chunk of this story ruined for you!

As much as I loved the artwork, I was disappointed at its unevenness. I've read a number of comics in which the artist stylizes the characters to look like celebrities. Generally when this is done, most of the characters have human counterparts. In Plunge, only the character of David Lacome looks like a famous person. In both representation and in tone, Lacome is portrayed by Amazing Spider-Man 2's Paul Giamatti. So if this book becomes a movie or TV series, I expect whomever produces a live-action Plunge to cast the acclaimed actor. But can someone tell me why only Lacome's character resembles a celeb?

I wish I could dive deeper into this book. But to do so could ruin so many more elements that this book's cover has already taken away from the reader. This book gave me chills. Look at the character of Lacome to be the one who brings the biggest jump scare. I may have said too much. But it's definitely a scene that will stick with me for quite some time.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.