The Wake #7 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (story), Sean Murphy (art), Matt Hollingsworth (colors)

The Story: Leeward gets firsthand of the anachronistic practice of walking the plank.

The Review: Call me a bona fide English nerd (and proud of it!), but the reason why I love novels—pure prose, in general—is for their exposition. If people are attracted to fiction for the new and different worlds they present, there’s no better way to revel in all that than in the endless exposition books can provide. Time and space are precious commodities in comics, even more so in a limited series, so sadly, world-building often takes a backseat to plot in any given issue.

If I had my way, Leeward would road trip this altered America, exploring all the changes to the land, population, and society, down to the way people wash their clothes now that water can’t be spared. Snyder certainly does his best, but with only four (I guess three, depending on how you look at it) issues remaining, he has to deliver exposition on a need-to-know basis. In place of the wealth of sci-fi fantasy we got last issue, Snyder makes huge strides in the plot, sending Leeward leagues away from where she started this story.

He also does this with great speed, enslaving Leeward and delivering her to freedom in just five pages, barely giving her enough time to conceive a plan for escape before it’s foiled, then unexpectedly fulfilled. Snyder has enough skill to keep things reading smoothly, but no amount of finesse can really disguise how rushed this issue feels. At the very least, you expected some kind of reaction to Lee Archer’s last message, which stunned even Leeward’s captors into silence, before we open on her and Pub already locked to the oars of a dredger.

At most, we get General Marlow’s demand of Governess Vivienne to “[t]ell me it’s hollow,” “it” being Archer’s claim that “I can tell you how to save the world.” Vivienne is dismissive, of course, analogizing any faith in Archer’s message as running “head first into a cold, meaningless beacon.” She’s not alone in that sentiment; Pub scornfully refers to the message as “The Golden Net. The thing that’ll scoop up all the Mers.” But Vivienne’s response goes beyond skepticism; the fact that she orders the death of the entire detail of men who heard the message with Leeward suggests her fear of its destabilizing effect.

Anyway, we already knew this about Vivienne; the really important thing about the scene is it reveals a potential ally in Marlow, making him the Meeks to Leeward’s Lee. Ostensibly antagonistic, he nevertheless shows some admiration for Leeward’s “spunk,” and the fact that he second-guesses Vivienne at all means he’s amenable to change—if he survives.

Being out on the open water in a world dominated by Mers, however, means no one (except maybe Leeward) stands much chance of survival, though it makes for some great comic book action. The King Mer attack on the dredger is a gripping sequence, made more so by Dash’s timely save. It’s not perfect, though. There’s one noticeable plot hole in this whole affair, which is the sudden disappearance of the dredger’s escort of orcas and humpbacks once the King Mer appears. Assuming this is the very event the whales were tagging along for, their inexplicable absence makes a big difference in how events play out, which is worth remarking on.

Snyder ought to be thanking his lucky stars he has Murphy as a collaborator, because when he can’t manage to get his world-building done, Murphy has the ability to pick up the slack. In a show of his marvelous powers of invention, Murphy’s concept work reveals details about Leeward’s world that Snyder can’t explain in so many words: the hybridization of vehicle and blimp, the return to ships powered by oars and sails, the massive tower of ice in Crane City. These visuals all make important statements about the world once you apply a little of your own logic to the matter.

Conclusion: Not quite as productive as last issue, but the wheels of the story, if anything, spin even faster towards what feels like a massive climax.

Grade: B

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: – I’d been looking forward to seeing the Outliers, described as “feral pirate cannibals,” but they don’t appear either feral or very cannibalistic, I’m afraid. They are making a very nice existence for themselves in the gullet of a King Mer, though, so props for adaptation.