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Dec 17, 2014 Web Exclusive By Ryan E.C. Hamm

While movies about ghosts and zombies continue to haunt our pop culture’s collective nightmares, people seem to forget about a significantly scarier place that’s a lot closer to home: the ocean. Perhaps that’s what gives Scott Snyder’s (script) and Sean Murphy’s (art) miniseries The Wake its initial clammy dread.

In its 10-chapter arc, The Wake manages to touch on human evolution; a post-apocalyptic, Waterworld-y Earth; underwater horror; aliens; and an oppressive government. Sometimes it threatens to collapse under its own narrative weight (and wobbles from time to time), but overall, it tells its story of twists and turns well. That’s likely because Snyder possesses a unique ability to instantly give his characters a realism that makes them empathetic and believable, and Murphy’s pencils make people jump off the page every time they’re scared or devastated (which in The Wake is a lot). It’s a great sci-fi story with characters that will stick with you long after the last panel. (www.vertigocomics.com/comics/the-wake-2013)

Author rating: 8/10