The Wake by Scott Snyder

A #1 New York Times Best Seller! Winner of the 2014 Eisner Award for Best Limited Series New York Times bestselling author, Scott Snyder (American Vampire, Batman, Swamp Thing) and artist Sean Murphy (Punk Rock Jesus, Joe The Barbarian), the incredible team behind the miniseries American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest, are reuniting for the powerful miniseries: THE WAKE. When Marine Biologist Lee Archer is approached by the Department of Homeland Security for help with a new threat, she declines, but quickly realizes they won't take no for an answer. Soon she is plunging to the depths of the Arctic Circle to a secret, underwater oilrig filled with roughnecks and scientists on the brink of an incredible discovery. But when things go horribly wrong, this scientific safe haven will turn into a house of horrors at the bottom of the ocean! Collects THE WAKE #1-10.

3.5

Came to The Wake to introduce myself to Snyder's work, as I thought a shorter horror volume would be a good entry point. But Sean Murphy's art is what really blew me away. Couldn't quite get on board with the ending, but overall it was a solid way to spend a couple of smaller reading sessions.

Wanted some more of Sean Murphy's work after his impressive run on Batman: White Knight. I love his scratchy kinetic style and this earlier work did not disappoint.

But it's such a comic. Snyder leans into the tropes. The first half is a rag-tag group of experts (naturally) in their respective fields taken miles underwater to a secret sea base (of course) where they've captured (I'm sure that'll last) a menacing mer-man (Hadley from The Cabin in the Woods would be so pleased!) and you know all this will go absolutely pear shaped. I could have leaned into that, there's meat on those bones. It's essentially Aliens underwater and I would have happily enjoyed a man vs merman showdown.

But then the second half of the book comes on 200 years into the future and we've got another protagonist with a sonic dolphin (that at one point will out-surf an avalanche) and a whole wack ton of hand-waving mythology that's supposed to tie into the first part but frankly doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense. It's like Matrix Reloaded and Prometheus where there's a ton of pot fuelled exposition that at first blush sounds great but in the light of day just falls apart. I mean individual story beats are great but taken as a whole it just didn't work for me. Convince me I'm wrong.