The Wake #9

Part Nine (of 10)
written by Scott Snyder
art by Sean Murphy

The Wake has always been a tale of quest and adventure, from the moment Lee Archer accepted Agent Cruz's invitation to the bottom of the ocean.  And The Wake #9 gives Leeward, First Mate of the Argo 3; Captain St. Mary; and their crew of pirate civilians their very own Gulliver's Travels sequence: a trip around the remaining world, visions of its many human wonders, variety and ingenuity, in search of their treasure.  Like so much of his life, it's an archetype Captain Mary is happy to fulfill.  Handing Leeward the explosive plunger, "X marks the spot.  Want to open the chest?" (The Wake #9: 6).

It's also a story about storytelling, from the moment Professor Marin was invited as an expert of mythology and folklore.  And, it seems, we finally meet humanity's finest storyteller, the mysterious, blinded cave painter.  The source of the signal.  The coffer, the pirate treasure Leeward has so long sought and a sly acoustic echo of "coffin," the final resting place of humanity's lone scribe.  His story, though, is near indecipherable however evocative it may be, a blend of alien patterned technology and representational art: the head of mer below the imagined waterline, two crying human eyes above, and, in the middle of a crescent moon, a small glowing pebble.

The quiet around the cave—the long absence of human life, the Governess or her army, and the mers themselves—should have perhaps raised some alarm as the quiet before the storm.  When the Governess shows up with a flotilla of sea- and aircraft, her meaning is to absolutely obliterate Leeward and the crew of the Argo.  She succeeds in sinking their ship, and in doing so, plunges Leeward into a swarm of mers.  It is a moment of real defeat.  Though her indignation would have been piqued to no avail, Leeward could perhaps have stomached death at the hands of the authoritarian tyrant and her armada.  But the disappointment of finding nothing but cave paintings and a lonely skeleton as the source of the signal is devastating.

But then the mers take her down under the water.  And there, in a luminous vision, she meets Lee Archer.

[August 2014]