Ending with an explosion and a whimper.
Creative Staff:
Story: Mike Richardson
Art: Fernando Baldo
What they say:
Things literally heat up in the finale to Deep Gravity. Will the crew of The Vanguard survive the disastrous reentry into Poseidon’s atmosphere, much less the deadly beast still stalking its halls?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
So you can’t always get what you want in the comics industry. Sometimes series flourish, sometimes they flounder, and sometimes publishers, editors or investors murder them. Which of these, if any, was responsible for the death of Deep Gravity, I don’t know, but something definitely went wrong with this, the fourth and final issue.
We rejoin our trapped and ragged crew as the wreckage of The Vanguard burns upon reentry into Poseidon’s atmosphere. Things are feeling pretty fatalistic when, lo and behold, a rescue ship from the colony arrives! The crew books it, barely outrunning the still-ravenous plant beast on their heels. The creature bites it in the vacuum of space, (of course it does,) and the crew nearly gets toasted again in the rough landing, but they do make it safely to the ground.
And… that’s it. Series over.
And that’s the long and the short of it. From the beginning, Deep Gravity was (ostensibly) establishing its narrative as one of planetary survival. A new ship only arrives once every three years on Poseidon. Human beings can only survive the planet’s stronger gravitational pull and harsh atmosphere for four or five. Get it? The outbound ship goes down and now everyone’s gonna die, what do we do? Commence the drama. The initial arc of the crashing ship seemed poised as only the beginning, the impetus for the true story to get going, but unfortunately this turtle never made it off the beach. It’s a shame, as the dramatic escape and re-entry sequences are very well done. But there is no satisfying resolution for the characters or the plot in general. Steve and Michelle just sort of decide to like each other now because she may die before the next ship makes it out, (we’ll never know,) which is deplorably unbelievable, as Steve had never managed to take his foot out of his mouth up to this point. And of course, the larger, mysterious purpose of the planet Poseidon will never be known either. It really feels like they finished the issue and someone ran into the office and told them the plug was pulled, inciting the hackney and awkward ending. It’s rushed, it’s shallow, and it’s unfortunate.
Sigh…
I will, however, still give a shout out to Francisco Baldo’s art, which I enjoyed right up to the very end. His depictions of the wrecked Vanguard and the fiery reentry sequence were magnificently well lighted, toned and paced, and his unique style is one I’m looking forward to checking out in the future.
In summary:
Overall, Deep Gravity is a quality series with a bitterly unsatisfying ending. But these things do happen, series come and go, and some are allowed more graceful deaths than others. Deep Gravity just happened to die bloody. But in the end, I think I would recommend it for a read through.
Grade: C-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: October 29th, 2014
MSRP: $3.99
