The penultimate issue of this Image Comics miniseries resolves one problem before setting up a major one. In the violent world of “Undertow”, it seems things are going to get worse before they get better.
Written by Steve Orlando
Illustrated by Artyom TrakhanovMammoth hunting! Subzero temperatures! A barbarian aqua-god and three fish-men in battle suits filled with water! What could possibly go wrong? And if Anshargal’s team doesn’t make it back soon, their home might be under Atlantean management.
Anshargal, Ukinnu and Kingu were given a daunting task last issue, and the fact that the task was assigned by an amphibious god-man certainly didn’t help matters. As they set about accomplishing it this issue, we get to see the adventurers out of their element in an entirely new way; as the Amphibian puts it, “The water’s harder and sharper up here.” If there’s anything weirder to an undersea creature than dry land, it’s a frozen-ass mountain, and their quest has a particularly desperate edge because of this.
Steve Orlando has been particularly careful, in the series so far, to have the characters speak from an underwater perspective; their dialogue explains land phenomena thorough reference to the sea, calling vultures “land-barracudas”, for instance. There’s been just enough moments like these to keep us from forgetting about the alien frame of mind of the Atlanteans, and having a particularly opportune one of these come up as the team confronts a woolly mammoth makes for a neat moment.
All the while, the novel setting presents ample opportunities for Artyom Trakhanov to play around with a starker aesthetic than before, and when it comes to moment-by-moment gorgeousness, the art never disappoints. The sketchy lines are offset by the saturated colours, parsed out to a few hues per page. At the same time, the landscape comes across aggressively; all craggy rocks and sweeps of snow, the danger inherent to the situation is kept foremost in our minds. The expressive and often humorous faces keep the story grounded. There are touches of playful banter here and there, and despite the peril of the quest, we get to enjoy watching these personalities interact.
“Undertow’s” main difficulty does, however, continues to be the visual storytelling. There are some particularly murky moments in this issue, panels where you have to stop and squint and rely on context to figure out what you’re looking at. Sometimes it’s a matter of colouring; there’s too much of one colour in a panel to be able to make out the details. Other times it’s the composition of the panel that’s hinky; there are too many actions going on in close proximity to one another. I’ve noticed that a lot of stuff tends to happen in issues of “Undertow”, much more than can usually fit into a single issue. It could be that so much action is being written into these issues that the storytelling suffers. In any case, the difficulty of following the visual narrative is definitely a flaw that you notice when paging through the book.
In any case – and so far as rewarding moments go – the resolution that we get near the end of this issue is particularly warm and fuzzy. We don’t get to enjoy it for long before things get dire, but this moment of reconciliation is memorable and well-timed, capitalizing on a few issues’ worth of build-up.
If “Undertow” has pulled you along so far, there’s certainly no reason to jet before the final issue. But for those of you who are tradewaiting, I’d give “Undertow” a tentative recommendation. It’s interesting despite its flaws, incorporating subtext alongside pulpy adventure, and a solid ending could very well anchor this unusual story.
Final Verdict: 7.8 – Browse
