Graphic Novel Book Club March 2016:

Pretty, and at times very well written, but, also, at times very shoddily, sloppily, and too quickly written. I was drug into this book with all my curiosities. I loved the parts where we spun off into mythos. I did love the eventual "This What The Mystery Was" except for the fact it was all word bubbles on 2-3 pages, unlike a million issues of well done subtle, story arc spanning, hints and leadup.

I wish we knew more about what happened at the end and where it was going to go from there. ( )

It's cool, I quite enjoyed this book. The first part is more intense and builds up nicely. The second part is more strange, the plot follows a more eerie and philosophical path, and many people might not like it so much. But i did! ( )

Rating of 2 for the story and "as-you-know-Bob" writing, and a 4 for the art.

Let's just get the art out of the way. Really nice linework by Sean Murphy and colours by Matt Hollingsworth. Yes, it suffered a bit from the same elements as Greg Tocchini's art on the Image series Low, but less so. So, for that, I could read it better and still enjoy the art. So, four stars.

Now, the story. Like others have said, it started out well, with some really fun characters and an interesting mystery to puzzle out. Where did the Mer come from? Was there more than one? What was the mystery of the sound.

...and then that all got tossed aside for an Alien-style trapped-in-a-limited-space-with-a-monster story.

Then the story just kept getting dumber and dumber. The Mers can grow large enough to grab a luxury cruise ship and flip it? You can turn one of those giant Mers into a submarine?

...ah, no...

So, while I finished it, the back half was tough to get through. ( )

This is actually a review for the second half of this comic series (#5-#10).

I loved the first five issues of Snyder's comic. It was thrilling, well-paced, and beautifully drawn. This second half... not so great. The story's pace slowed nearly to a crawl, the characters stopped being interesting, and the actual narrative got muddled, preachy, and, at times, incoherent. The first half of the series followed the writer's dictum to show, not tell; the last five issues did the opposite. ( )

This is actually a review for the second half of this comic series (#5-#10).

I loved the first five issues of Snyder's comic. It was thrilling, well-paced, and beautifully drawn. This second half... not so great. The story's pace slowed nearly to a crawl, the characters stopped being interesting, and the actual narrative got muddled, preachy, and, at times, incoherent. The first half of the series followed the writer's dictum to show, not tell; the last five issues did the opposite. ( )