Jumping the megalodon – review of the comic book “Dark Abyss”, volume 1

If they could, the sharks should file a class defamation lawsuit against Stephen Spielberg. Jaws in 1974 was something! The film, which is too rarely recalled, revolutionized American cinematography and led to the formation of modern blockbusters. He also started a total craze for aquatic predators, as part of which about two hundred films were made (and the counter is still growing). The creators are not satisfied with the “ordinary” representative of the requin genre , so they turn to more and more absurd ideas, such as the tornado shark ( Sharkado ) or the octopus shark ( Sharktopus ). It is no wonder that comic bookers also wanted to join this phenomenon.

Jump the megalodon

Screenwriter Christophe Bec in Dark Abyss also resigns from the “basic” sharks and reaches for megalodon (although the films also re-rolled him – The Meg or Megalodon). The prehistoric animal is to be found by the main character – the oceanologist Kim Melville. However, a collector of artifacts and rare species, the mysterious Centenarian from the Carpathians, has a similar goal. The man in the balaclava is also involved in all this – Snyder, president of the sinister Carthago corporation. As the pages go by, it becomes more and more obvious that the stake is not only about a prehistoric animal – the ruins of an unknown civilization are found in the depths of the sea. Bec did not stop there and collapsed history with an avalanche of flashbacks and other digressions. What is not here – the scenes take place: millions of years ago, during World War II, in the Himalayas in the 1980s or now, among the indigenous peoples of Australia. It is possible that in the second volume it all will make sense however, the first one is not very clear and such inserts make it even more confusing. You can see that the screenwriter wanted to create an epic and multi-threaded story and that it overwhelmed him. By the way, Scott Snyder used similar solutions in a similar subjectAwakening – with an equally miserable effect. Could it be some kind of curse hanging over the underwater stories?

Tales of the cryptids

I have no deep knowledge of zoology or palaeontology, but I really enjoy reading about it. It often happens that I use a kind of “fact checking” – if I find something interesting in my reading, I “google” in search of further information. And while imbibing the Dark Abyssthis has happened to me many times. To the disadvantage of the comic book, because there are many simplifications and distortions in it. For example, repeating that the megalodon is the largest predator that has ever appeared on Earth. Well no. Twenty-five meters long for this shark is a lot, but the blue whale that is alive today can be eight meters longer. At some point, a Yeti appears who has almost no fur – so how did it survive in the cold climate on the Himalayan peaks? I might be wrong, but I also noticed an anachronism related to the use of a localization device that appears here in 1984. And it works on Mount Everest. Yes, it’s crap. However, they show that Bec did not do the proper research or was deliberately misrepresenting the facts. And if the writer was lazy, why should I care?

I cannot see the dark… the dark

The reader, seeing the title Dark Abyss, expecting… darkness. And yes, those scenes that take place at night, in bad weather or under water come out best. Worse, they are a minority. It is not even about the realistic line used by Eric Henninot and Milan Jovanovic. The style of both men is very similar to each other and offers a similar economy of details. The problem is the colors that are used haphazardly and without consequences. The comic is full of flat-colored frames – where only the base is located, and there are no shadows. There are also panels where shading was made in the form of a gradient tonal transition, which is particularly unsightly. The more shocking is the fact that there were three colourists here – Delphine Rieu, Pierre Matterne and Maka – and all of them represent an equally mediocre level. It’s a pity, because the comic has a hard, great and atmospheric cover (it was she who tempted me!

Not mega at all

The Dark Abyss is an interesting case. Ultimately, my rating below is not bad, yet I cannot recommend this title. Christophe Bec created a multi-layered story in which I was not particularly convinced by any plot. None of the wide range of characters won my sympathy. None of the two cartoonists and three colorists created anything memorable. Apparently, there are still many mysteries to be solved, and somehow I do not want to reach for the next volume.