Deep Beyond #10 (Image, November 2021)

If you enjoy aquatic and kaiju-adjacent stories such as THE SHAPE OF WATER and CLOVERFIELD, be sure to check out the Image comics series DEEP BEYOND. I recently read DEEP BEYOND #10 (Image, November 2021), and the storyline -- even though it's near the end of its 12-issue run -- is quite promising. Written by Mirka Andolfo and David Goy, and drawn by Andrea Broccardo, DEEP BEYOND details a world in which there's a deadly contagion, monsters, various factions and autonomous groups as people try to reconstitute a working society, an underwater element (though much of the tale takes place on terra firma), and perhaps even clandestine aliens. The primary conflict is between the Trans-Colonial Council, the newly reformed government, and the Defeatists -- deemed by some terrorists -- who don't want to live underneath protective domes. (But whose politics are otherwise unclear.) The issue largely focuses on a character named Clover, ex-girlfriend of Trent, who now leads the rebel forces and is infected, his life sustained by machines. With a group of friends, rescued by an older man in a submarine, she intends to locate the mysterious B-34 Colony, determine whether the Council is hiding amphibious aliens and a gateway to another world, and rescue her friend Paul -- as well as one of the aliens. Highlights of DEEP BEYOND include the threat of monstrous creatures -- of which the reader sees only glimpses in this ish -- the contagion, which was probably explained in previous issues; and the high technology, some of it alien. But this late in the series, those aspects mostly serve as window dressing as the storyline comes near its conclusion. The writing is impressive -- the comic book is chock full of ideas -- and Broccardo's artwork ably captures the utopian and dystopian aspects of the emergent society. DEEP BEYOND is a good read. The first six issues were collected in a trade paperback last September, and the second volume is expected in March 2022. I'd expect it's a great read all in a row, if not just in longer spans.