Fathom, by Michael Turner

This compiled bible of a book is huge, spanning 455 pages of undersea adventure. The story is kinda like if Jonny Quest and Al Gore had a baby. It deals with the adventures of Aspen, an amnesiac girl found in the middle of the ocean. All grown up, she becomes a marine biologist working in a US-Japanese research lab at the bottom of the sea. It’s there that she quickly finds herself in the middle of a struggle between humanity and the beings that live in the deep. The first couple of pages hit you like a dream sequence–sort of a recap of the story thus far. This is a good summary of the first couple of sections. It takes a little while for the action to pick up. It can be a bit annoying, but the pretty pictures do a lot to make up for this interlude. Oh by the way, the pictures are gorgeous. The intricacies of the underwater vistas are truly breathtaking. Soon the explosions start occurring regularly. You’d be surprised to find how many things are able to blow up underwater. Each “chapter” of this collection begins with a foreword describing what the author sets out to accomplish during the following pages. The last 50 pages of the book is a collection of fantastic covers that spans the life of the comic book. Well worth checking out this book just in order to skim them. Teenage boys will come for the action and stay for the women in bikinis. Fans of comic books will appreciate the comic’s throwback 80’s sensibilities. Environmentalists will empathize with the plight of the oceans. Captain Planet Combine!

This comic is recommended for a TEEN audience, ages 16 and up.

Posted in Have You Read ... ?.
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