Sub-Mariner: The Depths #1

Yet another example of why fantasy is better than reality. After spending so much time yesterday thinking about real-world Atlantis theories, it's nice to forget all that and just read about the cool version.

Not that Sub-Mariner: The Depths is going to be a conventional superhero story. In fact, the Sub-Mariner doesn't even directly appear in this first issue. I'm fuzzy on when the story is supposed to take place, but I'm guessing it's at some point between the Sub-Mariner's Golden Age stories and his reappearance in the '60s Fantastic Four comics. All the zeppelins moored to New York City skyscrapers in the story throw me, but a mention of a "1939 expedition" and a reference to the Red Scare suggest that it's got to be in the late '40s or '50s. Probably this is some alternate timeline to the regular Marvel Universe, if you care about that kind of thing. At any rate, most of the people in this world have heard of Namor, but think he's just a myth.

The Depths is all about an explorer named Stein who's made a name for himself by debunking famous myths. When another explorer named Marlowe - a man suspected by the government of being a Communist - disappears while looking for Atlantis, the Navy gets worried. If Marlowe's found Atlantis, they don't want him turning it over to Russia, so they hire Stein to go after him. Stein's eager to prove Atlantis (and rumors of its king, Namor) false, so he jumps at the opportunity.

The issue sets up this situation and creates tension on Stein's submarine by revealing that most of the crew firmly believes in Namor and his undersea kingdom. There's also talk about the Depths doing things to people's minds. "The deeper you go," one sailor says, "the more creatures start crawling outta the darkness." It's very dark and claustrophobic and scary. Much more effective than Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, which also dealt with tension and possible mutiny on a sub.

Things finally build to a head until something attacks the submarine. Stein tries to take a look at it and can't believe what he sees.



And that's the one shot of the Sub-Mariner in the issue. The nice thing though is that I didn't miss him. I certainly don't want to read four more issues without the title character's appearing (and I hope even more that this world's version of the Sub-Mariner isn't just a manifestation of the Depths working on sailors' minds), but this first installment is a powerful, effective opening. And I tend to trust writer Peter Milligan to make sure the rest of the mini-series stays this good.