The Vault #1

Written by Sam Sarkar
Art by Garrie Gastonny

These days, I'm willing to give just about any new Image book a shot, as they've had such a great track record lately, and I thought this book looked intriguing when I leafed through it in the store.

It's about a group of treasure hunters and archaeologists who are convinced that there is some valuable treasure in a water-filled pit on Sable Island in Nova Scotia.  They have a lot of high-tech equipment, although not enough to retrieve it, and have to bring in some other dude, who has a robotic diving dog thing, although they don't want to pay his price.

It's sort of established that they are working against the clock, because of an impending hurricane (how often does that happen in Nova Scotia?), and there is a strange supernatural element to this story, as hinted at in the first few pages, and then mysteriously revealed at the very end.

I feel like this comic has a lot of problems.  To begin with, it took me a while at the beginning to get a grasp of what's going on.  It's hard to understand what makes this particular dive so different, and why it requires such amazing technology.  The biggest problem with this book is the hurricane though.  In a classic example of tell, don't show, we know there's a hurricane coming because the characters keep talking about how worried they are about it, and how it's going to wreck their communications with the mainland, but it doesn't seem to materialize in any way that matches the amount of concern on display.  It seems they have to abandon their boat, but have plenty of time to bring up treasure chests.  There is also the concern that other people may come and take their treasure, but they don't explain how these other people would have the needed tech...

There's some stuff to like here - especially Gastonny's clear pencils, but I don't think there's enough.  Even though that last page really caught my interest, I'm not sure if I'll be back for more.