Plunge by Joe Hill is a graphic novel which is heavily influenced by H. P. Lovecraft stories and John Carpenter’s The Thing. Plunge took me back to 80’s movies like The Fog, The Thing, Aliens, and The Abyss. The story starts off slow but after a lot of exposition finally gets going and does not stop. This book is gore filled. The villains are pretty terrifying. Since this story is such an amalgam of 80’s movies you almost feel as you know the story, but Hill offers a fresh and new twist to a story you already know. I thought the art could have been a little bit better I was confused at a some panels one was continuity based which you never want in comics, and the rest were focus issues. I do think creatures look good and the Killer Whale Panels were beautiful and my favorite. Plunge collects issues 1-6 released on Hill House Comics for DC comic’s Black Label.

The Plot: A research ship, Derleth, has started putting out a distress signal, the ship has been missing since 1983. The problem the ship is transmitting from international waters, technically Russia coast of an island just off from Alaska. The ship is found at the bottom of the ocean with the most terrifying creatures seeming to guard it. On the island a body of the crew is found with a whole in it’s neck and its eyes missing, they also find numbers a series of numbers that is Pi after the decimal point, that seems to be a trail but what will they find at the end of it.

What I Liked: It reminded me of 80’s science fiction and horror film plots. The underwater art is really good. I liked the gifts of power that were a gift yet also a curse. I like that it it was hard to guess who going to survive and who was going to meet their fate. I liked the the gore and how it was depicted.

What I Disliked: The couple of instances of art continuity, the one that was most obvious was when a creature kills a guy with an axe and leaves it in the man’s skull yet in the next panel the axe is still there and also in the man is holding a bloody axe. The first issue was such a slow start trying to cover too much exposition.

Recommendation: I think you should check out this gory graphic novel in the vein of if John Carpenter wrote a comic. The plot is one that you have read before but Hill add fresh new life. I have read almost everything Joe Hill has written you can’t go wrong with one of his stories. I rated Plunge by Joe Hill 4 out of 5 stars.