villyidol's review
3.0
The story of Cannon's family.
1944, Norwegian Winter, Nazis, experiments with nuclear fission and heavy water, superpowers.
Vastly different from the previous issue, in look and content. Could have been something that really interests me if it were longer. But I guess what will remain for the main series is Cannon's special ability to manipulate water. And I'm not likely to care about that all that much.
Nice artwork.
2.5 stars
1944, Norwegian Winter, Nazis, experiments with nuclear fission and heavy water, superpowers.
Vastly different from the previous issue, in look and content. Could have been something that really interests me if it were longer. But I guess what will remain for the main series is Cannon's special ability to manipulate water. And I'm not likely to care about that all that much.
Nice artwork.
2.5 stars
libra17's review
4.0
I found Fathom while browsing a while ago and recently pulled it off the TBR shelf. It was apparently a bestselling comic in the late 1990s, although I didn't know that at the time, and I ended up liking it quite a bit.
The storyline for most of the thirteen issues collected in this volume revolves around a faction of 'fish people' (they're actaully water nymphs, although that's not specified in-universe) who are hostile toward surface dwellers and want to use Aspen (an unusually powerful water nymph who has grown up on the surface, not knowing who/what she actually is) to power a weapon. Aspen is captured by this group who use a combination of charm and not unreasonable sounding arguments to get her to power these devices, while being kept largely in the dark as to what's actually going on. She eventually gets rescued and uses her new training to defeat the violent faction, though not before some things happen that alert the surface world that some strange shit is going down in the Pacific Ocean. The last couple issues of the volume are side stories tangentially related to consequences of the main plot, but read as very episodic.
As other reviewers have pointed out, the story does have some issues with characterization and pacing. Aspen flip-flops a lot, seems to master her absolutely amazing powers unreasonably quickly, and lots for allusions are made to Aspen's history and the origins of the 'fish people' that are never explained. Some of these can be understood in a certain light: Aspen was basically forcibly recruited and subsequently brainwashed by a political cult, I got the impression most of her time spent there is told via a series of timeskips, and allusions to yet fully explained story elements seem likely to be revisited in future issues. However, the lack of clarity surrounding these things and others like them can make the characterization and story come across as sloppy. I'm hoping that these problems get smoothed out in future issues.
While the story had some problems, the artwork is gorgeous and definitely bumped up the final rating I chose to give this book. (It also looks really familiar, though I can't figure out why. I looked at the publication history of everyone listed as an author/illustrator and I've not yet read anything they published except this volume.) Four out of five stars; will read the next book.
The storyline for most of the thirteen issues collected in this volume revolves around a faction of 'fish people' (they're actaully water nymphs, although that's not specified in-universe) who are hostile toward surface dwellers and want to use Aspen (an unusually powerful water nymph who has grown up on the surface, not knowing who/what she actually is) to power a weapon. Aspen is captured by this group who use a combination of charm and not unreasonable sounding arguments to get her to power these devices, while being kept largely in the dark as to what's actually going on. She eventually gets rescued and uses her new training to defeat the violent faction, though not before some things happen that alert the surface world that some strange shit is going down in the Pacific Ocean. The last couple issues of the volume are side stories tangentially related to consequences of the main plot, but read as very episodic.
As other reviewers have pointed out, the story does have some issues with characterization and pacing. Aspen flip-flops a lot, seems to master her absolutely amazing powers unreasonably quickly, and lots for allusions are made to Aspen's history and the origins of the 'fish people' that are never explained. Some of these can be understood in a certain light: Aspen was basically forcibly recruited and subsequently brainwashed by a political cult, I got the impression most of her time spent there is told via a series of timeskips, and allusions to yet fully explained story elements seem likely to be revisited in future issues. However, the lack of clarity surrounding these things and others like them can make the characterization and story come across as sloppy. I'm hoping that these problems get smoothed out in future issues.
While the story had some problems, the artwork is gorgeous and definitely bumped up the final rating I chose to give this book. (It also looks really familiar, though I can't figure out why. I looked at the publication history of everyone listed as an author/illustrator and I've not yet read anything they published except this volume.) Four out of five stars; will read the next book.
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