Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

The Wake #3The Wake #3 of 10
Vertigo Comics (DC)
Snyder & Murphy

Scott Snyder knows how to write a horror comic book. The third issue of the series gives us the first glimpse of this creature's nasty side and it is a fantastic read. The comic book stays away from dialogue as Snyder calls on Sean Murphy to deliver the suspense through his visuals. This is done to perfection. It's hard to imagine where this goes for seven more issues, especially based on the cliffhanger. This is shaping up to be an incredible series.

The creature is loose. The main protagonist, Lee Archer, is caught in some kind of flashback sequence. Snyder does a good job of tricking the reader in the opening pages before all hell breaks loose. The creature clearly has more abilities than simply being a merman.

Once the action kicks off I found my heart racing through about ten pages of this book. I was waiting for key characters to get caught off guard, this while some of the characters are already injured and while the section of the rig they are in is flooding quickly. Snyder tricks the reader a couple of more times during these pages and one of them even solicits a well-timed laugh during these hellish panels.

The difficult part of this comic is that characters are mentioned and tossed around but there isn't much in here to sort of remind the reader as to their roles they play. For example, Brenner is mentioned three times but I couldn't figure out what Brenner's part is in all of this without going back to the first two issues. While this seems to be related to Snyder writing for the trade paperback he constructs this comic with chapters within the book which would lead you to believe he is more writing for the single issue story. It's a minor complaint and if I had a better memory it wouldn't a noticeable problem.

Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle ReviewsMurphy delivers the goods as you would expect. He's got the visual terror down cold. The art on the panels when the creature is stalking the characters captures the fear on the character's faces very well. Murphy also manages to capture the speed of the creature, which seems impossible to near perfection. Visually, this comic book wouldn't be nearly as suspenseful without Murphy's stellar artwork.

When you get into a horror story, of any kind, you expect there to be bloodshed and for characters to die. The third issue in this series delivers that extremely well. Snyder is looking to top this issue with the next one based on the surprising cliffhanger. Overall, you can't get a better horror comic these days. I recommend checking this out.

4.5 out of 5 Geek Goggles