The ocean, what is it? Its the big
blue wet thing that covers about 70% of the earth. The inner-space if
you will. It is full of life. Be that sharks, whales, squids,
penguins and...extremely muscly men. Marineman is Image's answer to
the oceanic hero genre.
Opening up with a free-diving sports
event going wrong, to then go straight into the story. The comic
follows Steve Ocean, a famous oceanographer with his own
documentaries. The public actually know him as “Marineman”, but
only as a nickname. With his friend Jake Clearwater (another fitting
name), they go to the institute where Steven's father works. When
there Steven goes down to the “basement” level which happens to be a
secret navy base where he meets a Lieutenant Charlotte Greene.
So this is Ian Churchill's (artist for
Cable and Supergirl) latest creation. With Marineman, he is both
writer and artist and within this issue he does well at both.
Churchill had said he wished to bring back the “feel good” type
comics that were enjoyable and he succeeds in that as well, with its
light-heartedness and yet un-childish approach to story telling.
There are two main problems to point
out with this first issue. The first problem to point out is that it
is very word heavy, with the first page having 433 words itself. It
kind of felt like I was reading an essay of some sort, but it was all dialogue. The other main drawback has to do with the art. Not exactly
the art itself, but one small part of it. Churchill drew Steven Ocean
to be an extremely buff man and I mean extremely buff, like a
mountain. The problem with doing this is that at some of the angles the
muscles look extremely awkward and out of place. This is mainly
apparent on the cover.
Other than this one thing with the
art the rest is quite impressive. Churchill's artwork is like a
cartoon version of what he did for Hulk. Churchill teamed up with
Nicolas Chapuis (Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time) for the interior
coloring. Everything about the colors are vibrant and loud which
works well for the “feel-good” vibe the comic wishes to give.
For an issue one, this comic I believe
truly brings the promise of an enticing new series and I look forward
to see how Churchill is going to expand on the character and the
world he has created. With many comics that deal with stories on a
galactic level or take place in an alternate reality or extra
dimension, it is nice to read something that is based around what
earth already has to offer and one that truly is a feel good comic
then I recommend picking up this issue.
Story - 6.0
Pencils - 6.0
Colouring - 7.5
Total - 6.5