On the night of the biggest storm in New York City history, Elysia Puente gets a call from her estranged little brother Angel, terrified, begging for help. When the call cuts out suddenly, despite the bad feelings between them, Ellie rushes into the night. Finding his broken phone in front of a barricaded subway station, Ellie follows echoes of her brother into the sinister darkness of the underground, desperate to find him before it’s too late.

The above synopsis pretty accurately sums up the plot to this supernatural horror tinted comic that, honestly, left me a little unsure of just what was happening at any given time. Which, I suspect, is entirely the point. After all if the entire plot were just handed to you, then Submerged #1 wouldn’t be as compelling a comic as it is. There’s a certain charm in not quite knowing what the hell is going on, although that is a fine line to walk; you want readers to want to know more about the story they’re reading without feeling completely and utterly lost. Submerged #1 remains on the right side of the fine line.

The book has a very haunting aesthetic, thanks to artist Lisa Sterle and Stelladia respective inking and coloring. Submerged #1 feels very much as though you’re being pulled through deeper and darker (and sometimes not always figuratively) environs as, like Alice, you fall deeper into the rabbit hole that Vita Ayala has penned.

As a break from the spandex crowd, this book delivers; there’s groundwork laid here that should pay off down the road, and just enough to hook the reader back for the second issue.

Story: Vita Ayala Inker: Lisa Sterle
Colourist: Stelladia Letterer: Rachel Deering
Story: 7.5 Art: 8.0 Overall: 7.8 Recommendation: Buy

Vault provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review