Scott Snyder has quickly established himself as the Stephen King of comics with a series of horror books to his name - Severed, the story of a cannibalistic child killer in Depression-era America; American Vampire, the title is self-explanatory; the zombie-like assassins Batman faced in the Court of Owls; and now The Wake, an undersea Lovecraftian yarn featuring deep-sea monsters and shady government goings-on. Snyder opens the first issue (of 10) with a curveball to the reader, setting the prologue 200 years in the future where cities are all but underwater and survivors have adapted individual glider packs to help navigate the large bodies of water. But how did things get so bad? Back 200 years we go, and we meet our heroine, Dr Archer, a cetologist (marine scientist specialising in whales and other marine mammals) who is approached by Agent Astor Cruz from the Department of Homeland Security to travel to Alaska and investigate a strange whale-like sound unheard of before. But when Archer goes beneath the Alaskan waters and witnesses an illegal underwater oil-drilling operation, she realises Cruz hasnt been telling her everything and the situation is far stranger than she at first thought... The premise is interesting at first before were whisked back to the present-day and introduced to what turns out to be a cast of disappointingly overly-familiar stereotypes. The outlaw scientist whos a pariah to her scientific community? An untrustworthy, shady government agent? Weve seen these types before, and whats worse is Murphy draws them so similarly to characters from his last book, Punk Rock Jesus, so Archer looks exactly like Gwen and Cruz looks a lot like Thomas McKael. Another character, Dr Marin, looks identical to Murphys depiction of Carl Sagan! Has Murphy got so limited a range that he cant come up with different character models? And why has Snyder opted for such blandly generic characters as the leads? Like most first issues, were given glimpses of the larger storyline - the prologue set 200 years in the future and the epilogue set 100,000 years in the past - but the bulk of the comic is about introducing us to the characters and the storys setup, so its not surprising that very little happens in this comic. So far though, the series heavily resembles a mix of James Camerons The Abyss and Brian Woods The Massive, with a cast made up of uninteresting characters and some random time-shifts to keep the reader from becoming totally bored with the comic. I understand Snyders left Gotham with The Wake so hes allowed to take things at a slower pace without having to throw in obligatory action scenes every few pages, but I expected a bit more originality and energy from his storytelling than whats on show here. The Wake #1 isnt a bad comic but given the talented creative team behind it, its a disappointingly average first issue. That said, Snyder has written so many excellent books that hes earned the benefit of the doubt and Im willing to see where hes going with the next few issues. Take us down further, Captain Snyder!
The Wake #1 by Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy is out now