Spoiler Alert: I will be going over the basic plot of this issue.
Written by Scott Snyder and illustrated by Sean Murphy, readers can be assured that they are in for a quality comic experience when it comes to the new series titled The Wake.
Right at the start, readers are sent soaring through a city lit by a warmly colored sunset following a character on a hang glider. The character is left unnamed but her apparent pet dolphin named Dash is introduced before a flood, spilling over the surrounding sky scrapers, sends them running.
Jumping back 200 years from the hang gliding dolphin lady, Lee Archer, a marine biologist, takes over as the protagonist. She sits on a raft talking to her child, Parker, over a headset while examining a whale she calls Quaz.
The introduction to her character is quickly interrupted by another named Agent Astor Cruz from the Department of Homeland Security. Agent Cruz informs Archer that they need her assistance in mysterious new case while he plays her a sound recording of a creature they accidentally found in Alaska.
When asked if she had heard anything like it, readers are shown a dramatic scene of Lee leaning over the edge of a boat, crying, reaching for someone apparently drowning but, she replies to Cruz saying, “No”. Experiencing the flashback, mixed with her blunt response and fraught body language makes it quite clear that Archer is hiding something from both Cruz and the reader.
In the next section of the issue, Archer is being brought to an oil rig in southern Alaska where she is introduced to her new team of fellow scientists. There is Dr. Marin, a professor of folklore and mythology, Meeks, a mysterious man whose profession is left unknown and Bob who used to be Archer’s boss when she worked for NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).
As they walk down into the underwater oil rig, workers are shown running, some severely injured, when Archer hears the eerie call of the creature causing her ears to bleed. On the second to last page, readers are shown the creature which appears to be some sort of mermaid like beast, bound by chains in a water filled tube.
The final page jumps back 100,000 years to a cave where a seemingly frightened caveman is shown drawing on the walls while other men and women seal the cave with large rocks. The man drawing pulls some sort of device, clearly not made by him or any other primitive man, out from under a rock. He brings it in front of his eyes and stares through it to the reader. Something happens and blood shoots from his eyes, splashing against the walls, covering parts of his cave drawings and concluding the first issue.
As far as a first issue goes, this one does everything it needs to. With a compelling and curious story written by Snyder, it draws the attention of readers and transports them to a world daftly illustrated by Murphy. The characters are interesting, the ending even more so and, I personally can’t wait to read the second issue which came out on 6/26/2013.
If you are looking for a new series to pick up, love science fiction, mystery and action The Wake is definitely worth checking out.