The Massive #9

Written by Brian Wood
Art by Garry Brown

When The Massive, Brian Wood's post-environmental collapse series began, I thought I had a pretty clear handle on it, and that the book really would be about the search for The Massive, the missing vessel owned by Ninth Wave, the environmental direct action group.  Along the way, I assumed that the crew of the Kapital would explore the new world that Wood has figured out, and that basically, the series would be like the first half of Wood's other series, DMZ, only set on the ocean.

Then this new arc, 'Subcontinental' started, and it became more and more clear that there is a lot more going on in this series, even if I have no idea what it all is yet.  I feel like Wood has been peppering this book with clues to a whole other story, that only a little of which has been revealed now.

The Kapital has come to call at Moksha Station, a community of commandeered oil platforms in the Indian Ocean.  Ninth Wave's leader, Callum Israel, has been captured by Sumon, the station's director, after his girlfriend Mary destroyed Moksha's communication array.  While this is going on, Mag, the Kapital's third in command, has arranged for some kind of work to be done with a transponder, and his assistant Georg has gone after a nuclear submarine that sits under the station.  Israel knows nothing about any of this, and at the same time, we learn that he is harbouring a pretty big secret of his own.

This series began with a large number of lengthy info dumps, so it's pretty cool to realize that Wood was really playing his cards close to his vest at the same time.  I've been intrigued by this book since it started, but this latest issue has really ramped up my interest.  It's a very good, very nice-looking series.