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Review: The Wake #4

By | September 27th, 2013
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The last time we checked in with “The Wake”, the proceedings were intriguing but mystifying. Dr. Archer was on board a top secret underwater ghost rig, researching a mysterious fishman with a screeching call and a tendency toward making everyone hallucinate. Since then, we’ve gotten a bit more exposition, with the most important reveal being that the fishman has friends – and they are enthusiastic about busting him out.

Written by Scott Snyder
Illustrated by Sean Murphy

Trapped…drowning…dying…could things get worse for Doctor Lee Archer and her team? Yes, they could. Much worse, in fact. Turns out the shocking discovery of the creature was only the beginning.

As Archer and the rest of the crew attempt to flee the wrath of not one, but swarms of fishmen – beings who seem to cherish a primordial beef with humanity – the focus is mostly on the action, making this the most suspenseful issue yet. (Also, Primordial Beef is the name of my next death metal band.)

That said, Snyder still manages to slip in a background story at a tense moment, and it doesn’t quite work. Flashbacks are seldom the most graceful way to deliver information, and since this one brings about a course of action tangentially rather than directly, it feels kind of out of place. It’s clearly delivering some contextual mythology that will be picked up later on, but the way it interrupts the pacing here makes the trade-off feel unbalanced.

Otherwise, the action escalates beautifully, with some well-handled beats as the remnants of the crew attempt to establish a secure area of the ship. The reveal that tops it all off isn’t unconventional by any means, but it escalates the matter even more, underscoring the magnitude of what Archer and Co. are going to have to deal with, even if that primordial beef is still a mystery.

Sean Murphy’s art is, as usual, fantastic, impressing with its versatility now more than ever. The undersea equipment in particular is completely convincing, selling the claustrophobia of the situation by making it look and feel that much more real. But the humanity – not to mention the horror of the entire ordeal – is always tangible, coming across with all kinds of nuance in the character’s faces. In that respect the opening close-up of Archer’s face, framed by clusters of data and instrument readings as they read out on her viewscreen, is damn near iconic.

Sometimes the action scenes don’t scan as easily as they could; it may be something to do with the black backgrounds, which make movement more difficult to get a grasp on. But most of the time Murphy strikes a deft balance between detail and murkiness, showing us enough to keep things clear but still managing some stark and eerie compositions. So much of the horror of this story comes out of this balance; we’re afraid of what is implied but not visible, and those stretches of black space serve as a constant reminder that there could be something around every bend.

Matt Hollingsworth’s colours look better than ever this issue, practically glowing at times as saturated yellows punctuate murky blues and greys. This continues to be a great-looking book, and if the plot is hard to follow in a macro sense, the outright beauty of it all engages in its own right.

“The Wake” is still going strong, even though – or because – the answers remain elusive and the overall pace on the slow side. You probably know by this point in the series if it’s your sort of thing or not; but if you haven’t jumped on yet, and you know you’ve got a taste for claustrophobic intrigue, for the love of all things oceanic, do jump in.

Final Verdict: 8.5 – Buy


Michelle White

Michelle White is a writer, zinester, and aspiring Montrealer.

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