The Deep: Here Be Dragons #2, loses steam, still a good comic for children

The Deep is a three issue mini-series about a family exploring the deep parts of the ocean in a state of the art submarine.  It’s sharply drawn, has realistic family members that young readers will easily relate to and the first issue had enough action to keep boys interested.   The Deep:  Here Be Dragons #2 doesn’t have as much overall action, but does maintain the series momentum to an extent. In the second issue the Nektons go to Greenland to investigate reports of large sea monsters.  Unfortunately more than half of the comic spends time on a dock where we meet the locals and a television reporter.  The Nektons have had dealings with this sensationalist reporter in the past and a quick back story is established.

At page 14 the comic gets moving again and our family goes to the undersea crevice where the monster is most likely coming from.  Points to the writers for correctly stating that oil leaks happen naturally underwater.  However, those points are immediately taken back when the family says that they can’t let anyone know about the oil leaks because of the big oil companies. I don’t mind timely issues in comic books.  But relying on tired stereotypes, even for young readers comic books are irritating because they’ll continue the potentially exaggerated narrative.

Thankfully after that brief Captain Planet interlude, the comic gets back on track and looks for sea monsters.  Three of the family members explore in the smaller submarine, leaving Ant, the younger brother in the big ship alone.   Just then a sea monster hundreds of times larger than the small vessel approaches! The Deep: Here Be Dragons #2 was disappointing, but I’m holding out hope that it ends on a strong note.  Regardless, children and young readers will enjoy it and probably laugh at the parts that annoyed me.  Go figure.