Creative Staff:
Story: Cullen Bunn
Art: Juan Doe
Letterer: Ryane Hill
What They Say:
Something vile is lurking just beneath the surface of the fathomless floodwaters. As the rivalry between the various factions of monsters heats up on Shrae’s Ark, an evil from below rises to threaten every human life on board the vessel.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I’ve been quite into this series with the first two issues with what’s been done, though a slightly greater percent of my interest is because of Juan Doe’s artwork over the story itself. I really like the story and concept with how it’s being executed but I’m loving seeing Doe just engage with some great layouts here and some fantastic creature design on top of some really striking color work to tie it all together. Cullen Bunn has been working the story in a slow and steady way here with the building tension that’s missing in a lot of books that just push fast to get there so we get a lot more payoff here even as the tension itself continues to build to where it’ll explode.
This installment definitely ups it as the mystery continues over Maldoon’s death. The event itself played out well and all eyes are on Nex, which definitely isn’t how the vampire prefers things to be, making it easier for him to deny involvement as why would he do something that would point to him so openly. That has Shrae working through all of those on board with brief interview pieces that really does a great job of exposing the different types on board and their protective nature. It’s engaging to watch him go through the list and some of the comments that are made but I love that he doesn’t even inquire of the unicorns as he knows they could not have committed it. That just has one of them making a greater play for safety by providing information in exchange for being moved up top and away from all these other creatures that are so unlike them.
The accusation phase is well done in all the classical sense and seeing the banter and pushback definitely fits well. But this is where Doe gets to cut loose a bit more as all of it is time for the arrival of more vampires from the deep sea, which is just a disturbing looking visual as they swam over the ark and make their way to creating more chaos. It’s filled with some strong scenes, especially all the earthy elements we get with Shrae and his family in how they’re presented, but these new vampires just have a slick and disturbing feeling about them because of how they climb out of the sea. It’s not a terribly detailed story piece (where have they been? How have they made their way here?) but as a sense of impending doom where Nex forcibly seizes the upper hand it’s spot on in creating tension.
In Summary:
Dark Ark presents a pretty nicely done twist to how events played out with Maldoon’s death and spends its time focusing on the array of creatures and how none will step up in the face of what the vampires represent. Cullen Bunn has a lot of fun coming up with the various defenses and some of the interactions that exist between the races and you get a good sense that Juan Doe is just having a blast with all these layouts and creature designs, giving them more details in the close up moments but also filling out a large ensemble piece wonderfully. This still doesn’t feel like a book I would normally check out and enjoy but it’s working for me in a big way and I can’t wait to see what the end payoff is with it and what twists may still be in store.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: November 29th, 2017
MSRP: $3.99
