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Horrors of the Deep wield Winged Feet.

Published 2009

Starting with a secret revealed: I’m actually much farther in the reading order than this. I came up with the idea to review everything on a website last week and have been going back through comics I’ve already read.

On my initial readings, I had been skipping anything labeled “Alternate Universe” because I’m just trying to understand the big-picture story of the main universe.

Boy am I glad I read this for the review:

Namor The Sub-Mariner as the monster in a psychological horror.
This is a concept I always thought would work well for Darth Vader, but never considered The Avenging Son.

But I think what makes this work so well is that it isn’t all about him. So much of the uneasiness and atmosphere of this book comes from our fear of the Deep and its inscrutability. In a submarine, in the dark, deep enough that the very weight of the water above you would crush you instantly.
Then how did that handprint get outside the glass?

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The artist for this, Esad Ribic, also illustrated one of my favorite comics, Silver Surfer: Requiem.

I dread the day I have to review it. Its just so good I don’t know how I’ll ever find the words. So imagine my surprise when I’m greeted with all these circus freaks in The Depths:

I was cackling by the time we got to Mr. Earing up there in issue 2. As the book goes on though, and the sub dives deeper and deeper, bug-eyes start to lose their comedic value and become an unsettling display of inhumanity.
A smile that is just a bit too wide rouses suspicion of their motives.
A deadpan expression that stares right past you, but at what?

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Personally, I bought a hard copy of this as soon as I finished reading it.
And between this and Marvels, I’m going to need to start looking for more comics pitched as “Regular people observing the fantastical/terrifying reality of a super-person.”