My Pick of the Week returns this week with The Wake #1 which is written by Scott Snyder with art by Sean Murphy. I have a strong feeling this 10-issue series is going to be one we remember for a long time and talk about for years.
The Wake #1
The Opening of The Wake #1
Snyder and Murphy decided to start out The Wake #1 with something which would not be considered as traditional. They started with a prologue 200 years in the future. This adds to the mystery surrounding the story and starts out like many Lovecraftian stories in structure. More on that later.
The Story in The Wake #1
Dr. Archer is a marine biologist specialized in whales. She used to be a government researcher and is approached by a ranking member of the Office of Homeland Security about doing some work for the government. She agrees and follows him to Alaska. There, she meets other people the government has recruited to investigate strange sounds possibly coming from whales in the area. There is an amazing epiphany in the last few pages of the issue which adds to the dread which is built in the previous pages. You know I would never ruin that for you.
The Lovecraftian Aspects of The Wake #1
First off (as you know from previews), The Wake incorporates creatures which dwell under the ocean. While some might say this is automatically a point to H.P. Lovecraft, they would partially be wrong. Granted, Cthulhu, Dagon, and many other gods are associated with water, any creature awakening from the deep is not a nod to Lovecraft.
Instead, a potential nod to Lovecraft comes in the formation and structure of the story. Many Lovecraftian stories begin in the future and recollect the past as a scientist describes how he became insane or an investigator talks about how his life crumbled months before. I could not say for sure if The Wake #1 is definitively a Lovecraftian tale because I would then have to assume the intentions of the creators. Instead, I would say that it is written in the Lovecraftian style.
The story builds an atmosphere of dread from the early pages to build up to each peak at the true evil at work. The last few pages of The Wake #1 just hint at the evil and the final, and true, reveal might not happen for months down the road. A Lovecraftian story builds fear from the very beginning and gives hints here and there that the great reveal will be something so mind-bending that the reader might have to go back and read parts of the story again to fully comprehend what just happened. The writing and the artwork in The Wake #1 both add to the dread and will being me back for the second installment.
