The Wake #1

is a sophisticated and beautiful example of horror fiction that titillates, confuses, and intrigues you right from the get go. and direct what plays out like one of those great '90's action thrillers you loved so much as a kid, but smarter.



The mysteries of the characters in The Wake run deeper than the Ghost Rig they reside in, and the story has plenty of its own as well. The first issue starts out 200 years in the future with no explanation. It ends 100,000 years in the past with technology even I cannot explain. The next several books have a mainstay in what appears to be in the present, but jump around in time with minor tidbits of something larger going on than the main story; or at least something to explain what's going on in main story.




Snyder gives us a great story here. As I was reading through issue #4 the other night, I was seeing it play out in my head like a movie. The panels were moving pictures; the characters were speaking aloud, and I was trapped underwater with killer mermaids. Or maybe they're Martians. Or maybe they're another evolution of human beings. What the hell is going on here??



This story follows Lee Archer, a marine biologists who specializes in vocalizations, or the study of songs and calls by mammals in the order of Cetacea (whales, dolphins, porpoise and the like). After being played a strange marine call by what appears to be some kind of government spook, she agrees to go with him into the deep to study what by all intents and purposes appears to be a real life mermaid. There she meets the rest of the team, and you'll know them all. It's the classic action team; the ruthless killer, the know-it-all, the man of myth, and the leader and wallet.



While The Wake starts out like an action thriller, it slowly evolves into more of a survivor horror tale. I'm about to go off on a side tangent here, so bear with me. is one of my favorite movies of all time, and a lot of it has to do with the no way out scenario that plays out. It's the ultimate in survival horror, one crew, one monster, with no possible escape for either except for the death of the other. In a lot of ways The Wake plays out like this, and it has me captivated.



Each and every page is drawn beautifully by Sean Murphy, and Matt Hollingsworth's colors compliment these drawings so beautifully. I found myself staring at pages longer than I should have, getting lost in the detail and the drama. Everything about this series has been just about perfect from cover to cover. If you haven't started reading The Wake yet, get down to your local comic shop and catch up. With six issues still left in this series, I can't wait to see how much crazier things get.
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