Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing The Wake 9 originally released June 4th, 2014. Shelby: Death is a pretty easy way to end a story. In most mediums, you wouldn’t be wrong to say it’s the ultimate end of a story; dead is dead, right? We’ve learned time and time again, however, that comic books play by their own, messier set of rules when it comes to the death of a character. Usually it’s an eye-rolling sort of resurrection we all begrudgingly saw coming a mile away. Sometimes, like in Charles Soule’s last issue of Thunderbolts, we love the “just kidding, not dead!” moment despite knowing with complete certainty it was coming. Sometimes, though, the death/not death of a character catches us so off guard we don’t know where to go next. That shock is exactly what I got at the end of Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy’s penultimate issue of The Wake. In case you didn’t catch my drift (ocean puns!): here be spoilers.

Leeward and her pirate friends have been on quite an adventure. They’ve seen some of the bizarre things this watery world has produced, and now they’re finally at the point of Lee Archer’s beacon. Except what they actually find is that cave with the drawings we first learned about way back in issue 1. Turns out, they’re not as alone as they think, as the governess shows up with what appears to be every single machine of war ever created.   That little inset panel in the corner is the Governess bombing the living shit out of the mer pirate ship. As the ship floods and mers swarm in, Leeward is dragged down to her watery end.

Just kidding! Instead, she’s met by none other than Lee Archer and the rest of the golden city of the dead.

So Lee’s not dead! Or, maybe she is. But her beacon wasn’t a recording! Well, ok, it might still be. How is it that, with only one issue to go, we still have no idea what the fuck is going on here? We’ve talked a lot about hope and despair throughout this series, and I think this issue ratchets up that tension, oscillating back and forth between the two every couple pages. At first, Leeward is hopeful; they’ve been on a fun adventure, no sign of the Governess, and they were about to find the beacon. When they discover the cave, I think Lee and Capt. Mary’s hope peaks; this may not have been a fix for the world, but it was something! It was information, it was new! Once the rest of the crew catches up, though, we’re back to our regularly scheduled despair, as they first bemoan the lack of concrete answers in the cave, and then as the Governess blows them all to hell. Again, we reach peak despair; our second protagonist was dying, for chrissakes. That’s an impressive record in a ten issue mini. Snyder and Murphy have us riding the waves of this story, and as we get closer to the end the water is getting pretty choppy. I know, I know, the ocean puns are dumb, but I can’t help it; they so accurately describe the form the story is taking.

This wouldn’t be a write-up of Wake if I didn’t praise the work of Murphy and colorist Matt Hollingsworth.

I love the way Murphy confined the chaos of Leeward’s experience to the inset panels. It makes the scene even more claustrophobic than it already is. As Leeward slowly sinks, the images get smaller and smaller, until we’re left with a tiny Leeward and Dash in a vast, inky purple page. It takes us back to that first arc; there was such an emphasis on the black, vastness of the ocean in comparison to humanity’s own smallness. Just when we think that this is the final end, that man is too small in the face of the ocean, we get that single, golden hand illuminating the scene. It’s back to despair and hope again, all encompassed in this one page.

I thought I might have an idea the form this story would take by now, but here I find myself completely stumped. Lee is maybe kind of alive, which means she might actually know how to defeat the mers, but we still have no idea what’s going on with the caveman, or Mars, or the moon blowing up. There’s still so much story I want to be told, I don’t know how we’re going to fit it all in just one more issue. Drew, I know you were a little down on the last issue of this title because it didn’t really go anywhere; did this issue leave you feeling a bit more satisfied?
Drew: Absolutely. I think one of my biggest issues last time is the time we spent with Marlowe — I couldn’t understand why we were giving valuable page real estate to someone the story obviously wasn’t about (though I suspect we’ll soon be meeting the daughter the mers killed all those years ago) — but this issue keeps such a tight focus on Leeward, there’s really no question as to who this issue is about.

As for what actually happens to her, well, that’s a different story. I suspect the next issue will feature a ton of answers, though I have my reservations as to just how elegant that exposition dump might be. This issue features two pages of exposition, seemingly there just for color. Murphy depicts them with characteristic gorgeousness — he really has a knack for these kind of collage/montage sequences — but that doesn’t quite explain what this information is doing in this issue. Hilariously, it all comes after Leeward suggests that she doesn’t have any more to say.

With Leeward having already established that they’ve been at sea for almost three months, does any of this information mean anything to this series? Does it even matter to this particular issue? All it really does for me is make me wish that we could have actually seen these stories, rather than these quick overviews.

Then again, it’s possible that we still have no idea what this series is ultimately about, and the practices of the Bogong are actually of key importance. Snyder is quick to dismiss impatience in this issue, giving would-be critics a voice in Captain Mary’s restless crew.

I half wonder if “where’s the switch to save the world?!” came directly from a fan. It’s a perfect example of the totally unrealistic expectations we set when waiting for an answer from a narrative. Surely, we’ll find out exactly what the Smoke Monster is made out of, and Lee’s solution to the mer problem is some kind of weapon she would have had no access to as she drowned at the bottom of the ocean. Making that impatience look utterly absurd may be an important set-up for the final issue, which I suspect may feel a bit like “a goddam lecture.” Snyder just wants to cut off those complaints before they begin.

Cleverly, the closing section is titled “founder” — a noun that could refer to Lee, or any of the other intrepid voyagers who discovered the golden city of the dead, but could also be used as a verb to refer to the sinking of the ship, or even a misstep of this series. Whatever it means, we’re finally at the altar of answers, poised to finally figure out what this was all for.

Which is to say, I have just as many questions as ever, but I certainly can’t complain that nothing happened in this issue. Leeward is dead. Long live Leeward!

For a complete list of what we’re reading, head on over to our Pull List page. Whenever possible, buy your comics from your local mom and pop comic bookstore. If you want to rock digital copies, head on over to Comixology and download issues there. There’s no need to pirate, right?