Lushly illustrated and wonderfully told!
7:22 am 21 October 2015
Sub-Mariner: The Depths - Esad Ribic, Peter Milligan
Although this is never as lushly illustrated as when the scenes are underwater, and I find the depictions of underwater vehicles particularly lovely. I like to imagine the artist wanted to live on a submarine as a child, and thus had a fascination for them, explaining why these subs are so lovingly portrayed here.















And while the art itself makes this well worth reading without a good story and hook, you get one on top of that. This takes place in Marvel's past, and since present Marvel is our contemporary time, well, in the past. It's before Namor has made himself known, and thus before Atlantis is known to be a real place.

A Captain Marlowe and crew has been lost in their search for Atlantis, and Stein, a professional skeptic, is paid to go down with a crew and find Marlowe - and possibly Atlantis?

This is nice, because it gives it a general arc, a feeling that something is to be accomplished or not, as well as providing a means of tension. The crew believes in Namor and Atlantis and are deeply superstitious; Stein believes in only what he can see. (He's so often called by his last name, and so rarely by his first, I can't even remember it.)

It's a little bit of a slow burn, but it's also built up so nicely that it flew by. The art was also so amazing, that I didn't seem to notice it was as slow as it was: I was just enjoying the art!

I keep tumbling down rabbit holes, finding writers and artists I adore. (This is, for example, by Milligan, through whom I'd found this artist.) I keep adding things I want to read. And while this is excellent, it's not quite as provoking as X-Force: It doesn't peel away the pretenses of humanity quite as much.

Then again, it didn't depress the hell out of me, too, so I quite liked this as a change of pace for Milligan. ( )

I thought that this collection was disappointing. There is very little of Namor to be found - instead, the story focuses on a scientist leading an expedition to prove that Atlantis doesn't exist. Of course, we know that Atlantis (and, consequently, Namor) "exists" in the Marvel Universe, so it's not very suspenseful.

Overall, I found the story to be boring. The art was decent, but I didn't like how Namor was drawn - he resembled a vampire, down to the sharp pointy teeth. ( )