Great worldbuilding? Yes. Great plot? Eh, not so much.
Creative Staff:
Story: Matt Kindt
Art: Matt Kindt
Colors: Sharlene Kindt
Letters: ?
What They Say:
Trapped in a flooding undersea base, Mia and the crew stumble upon a scientific discovery as their time is running out. They begin to fight among themselves about what to do with this valuable information, until one Dept. H crew member decides to take matters into his own hands.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
While Mia and Roger sit in a flooding compartment, Bob and Raj race to save them (and whatever they can of DeptH). Through the course of the issue we learn more about the world and the characters, but nothing about the murder.
With nothing better to do, Mia and Roger discuss Bob. With his military and demolitions background, Bob appears to be the ideal candidate for saboteur and murderer. At least in Mia’s eyes. Roger, however, doesn’t buy it, and spends the majority of the issue telling a story about Bob’s past and how he came to be hired by Mia’s father.
Roger’s narration “plays” while we watch Bob and Raj make desperate moves to free their colleagues. I won’t spoil what’s revealed, but it builds up Bob’s character very well and adds more to the already rich world.
As always, Dept.H excels at worldbuilding and character development. The world and the characters feel so real and are so well defined that the reader gets sucked into the story. This is good, because the plot itself doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. While the concept is great—a murder investigation in an underwater laboratory—the execution lacks. The story meanders and strives too hard for ambiguity and doubt, making the events feel more random and coincidental than anything else, and fails to provide us with enough clues to figure out the mystery.
The series’ success largely depends on what you want out of it. If you want a rich, immersive, and fascinating world populated by three-dimensional characters, then this is your comic. If, however, you want a tight plot and a good mystery, you’ll be disappointed. Naturally, the two should not be mutually exclusive, but that’s the divide with this series.
In some ways Dept. H reminds me of two very different stories: The Lord of the Rings and The Massive. The similarities to The Massive are obvious: the story is set in a not-too-distant future, the ocean plays an integral role in the plot, and a mystery lies at the heart of the story. The similarities to the The Lord of the Rings aren’t quite so obvious and has more to do with attitude and focus than anything else. Like LOTR, Dept.H cares more about building the world than anything else, sometimes at the expense of story. If a person fails to finish Rings, they’re likely quitting within the first 118 pages. It takes that long for Tolkien to get to the actual story. He spends all that time building up the world, giving us the history, the topography, the economics, and the familial relations of Hobbiton, and that’s either going to grab your attention or not. While Dept.H starts off strong, it quickly shifts focus to building its own Hobbiton.
In Summary:
Despite its flaws (which I think I’m picking up on more than other reviewers), Dept.H is a rich, unique book with a fascinating art style and a rich world. If you’ve been reading it in floppies up to this point, then my criticisms probably won’t affect you. If, however, you’ve been on the fence about this, I recommend waiting until the story is done. It could well be that this is one of those pieces that has to be read in its entirety in order to get the full effect. Dr. Josh gives this a….
Grade: B-
Age Rating: N/A
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: November 23rd, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
