In the depths of the sea, no one can hear you scream. Michael Gordon drags its readers to the bottom of the ocean and forces them into the confined spaces of an abandoned submarine in Transdimensional, now crowdfunding for its final issue on Kickstarter.
With his daughter suffering from a terminal illness, Deacon Price is tortured by nightmares and feelings of helplessness. However, all hope may not be lost as his team is given funding to investigate a Russian Navy submarine that has been missing for nearly twenty years. But what sort of mysteries does this submarine hold?
The very beginning of this comic is a tad bit confusing as Deacon is woken up from nightmare after nightmare. It takes a bit to figure out which reality is the real thing and which are just dreams. However, once the main plot gets going, you can’t help but have a sinking feeling as to what horrors are about to occur.
The unavoidable dread is pushed to a hundred once the mission is underway. This setup feels very Alien as the crew is brought onto the submarine. There’s just a very unsettling nature once they submerge. The color scheme of dark greens and blues combined with the tight framing only adds to the uneasiness. You can feel through the panels just how small the ship is and how there is nowhere to run.
With all this setup, the first few moments on the Russian ship is absolutely terrifying. However, the story then takes a very unexpected turn. Without giving too much away, this twist is interesting, leaving the reader to question their own morality. It also takes Deacon’s motivation and turns it on its head. In short, you’re left completely baffled as a reader.
While it’s refreshing to see these kinds of twists in any story, for a comic with so much horror setup, with so much emphasis on an Alien type story, the overall direction of the story is underwhelming. The feeling of claustrophobia this comic instils seems to vanish as this new component to the story progresses. It’s no longer as much about escaping the unknown in a place of isolation and more about something else.
This comic is still very good, make no mistake. It’s just when the reader is expecting one type of story and then is pivoted to something else, it can be underwhelming. This is especially true since the setup of this comic is so good in terms of story, colour scheme, and framing. If you’re looking for a horror comic that is widely different from anything you’ve read before, this is definitely something you’ll want to check out.
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