Dark Ark, Volume 3: The World That Waits

Dark Ark #11-15

by Cullen Bunn, Juan Doe (Artist), Mike Marts (Editor)

Two arks sail the flooded world. On one, Noah tends the animals of the natural world. On the other, the sorcerer Shrae stands watch over the monsters that haunt the night. But in order for Shrae’s charges to thrive in the World That Waits, Noah’s Ark must also survive. And when Noah’s vessel encounters trouble, Shrae’s monsters must work in secrecy to ensure that their would-be prey lives to find land.

From writer Cullen Bunn (X-Men Blue, Deadpool, Venom) and artist Juan Doe (AMERICAN MONSTER, WORLD READER) comes a sinister tale of biblical proportions.

Genres: Comics, Horror, Graphic Novels, Comic Book, Fantasy

120 pages, Paperback

First published August 7, 2019

About the author

Cullen grew up in rural North Carolina, but now lives in the St. Louis area with his wife Cindy and his son Jackson. His noir/horror comic (and first collaboration with Brian Hurtt), The Damned, was published in 2007 by Oni Press. The follow-up, The Damned: Prodigal Sons, was released in 2008. In addition to The Sixth Gun, his current projects include Crooked Hills, a middle reader horror prose series from Evileye Books; The Tooth, an original graphic novel from Oni Press; and various work for Marvel and DC. Somewhere along the way, Cullen founded Undaunted Press and edited the critically acclaimed small press horror magazine, Whispers from the Shattered Forum.

All writers must pay their dues, and Cullen has worked various odd jobs, including Alien Autopsy Specialist, Rodeo Clown, Professional Wrestler Manager, and Sasquatch Wrangler.

And, yes, he has fought for his life against mountain lions and he did perform on stage as the World's Youngest Hypnotist. Buy him a drink sometime, and he'll tell you all about it.

Visit his website at www.cullenbunn.com.

Reviews

[SMLauri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me ha gustado mucho esta historia, me parece muy original.
El dibujo y el coloreado me han llamado mucho la atención y han hecho que disfrute más leyéndolo.
Kruul es el mejor personaje, sin duda! Y Khalee, claro. Es muy interesante ver a todos los monstruos, aunque la mitad no sepamos lo que son. En resumen, muy buena historia.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review is for all four collected volumes in the series (20 issues).

A vivid reimagining of the Deluge that posits an answer for how other, darker, things survived. After an early confusion in the art and storyline identifying and differentiating what creatures are being portrayed, the plot tightens up and walks the tightrope of telling an overtly religious story neutrally - taking no position on maters of a faith that would detract from the tale and alienate some portion of the audience.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author Cullen Bunn has opened each volume with an introduction, and he immediately shares that there will be more of the story in a new series, called After The Flood. This is somewhat of a disservice to this story, which I thought would be the conclusion, as it then made the entire volume anti-climatic.

The story begins with two big events- Shrae’s first grandchild is born on the ark, and an island is sighted. Monsters and humans alike are eager to land and explore, but a surprise awaits them. Fallen angels, who survived the flood are there and immediately start hunting the ark inhabitants as they step off onto land. Khalee feels forced to take drastic measures and accepts her father’s dark magic herself to fight back against these new vicious foes. While the ark was certainly dangerous, they have now stepped out of the pan and into the fire, as landfall has just brought them more troubles. This, of course, sets up the next series that Cullen and the artist Juan Doe have planned.

The art in this volume was a big improvement from the previous two. While the humans remain blocky and indistinguishable from one another, the monsters get an upgrade. The purple-tinged pages of the monsters disembarking were drawn more precisely with some good action shots and interesting panel placement. The closeups of Nex, the vampire, definitely reminded me of the evil smile of DC’s Joker.

Overall, these three volumes told an interesting and sinister twist on the Biblical story of Noah, with Shrae’s parallel voyage. I’m also willing to check into the sequel, although on Goodreads I only see V1 of After The Flood, which was published in 2020, and none since then. Covid hit publishing hard, so I wonder if the entire scope of the story will eventually be wrapped up the way Bunn was hoping for. (Actual review 3.5/5)

This review (plus V2) can be found on my blog: https://graphicnovelty2.com/2022/02/1...

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've really enjoyed this series, about a second ark carrying all of the world's monsters, overseen by a human sorcerer, Shrae, and his family. Now that the flood is receding and they've apparently found land, what awaits? I'm glad to see that this isn't the end and that Bunn has already started on another story arc. Recommended.

[Zedsdead · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dark Ark finishes the way it started, as a poorly told great idea. I've seen Cullen Bunn do decent work so I'm not sure why this series feels so lazy and inept.

Plot points:
--Shrae's newborn grandson is a tiny vampire. (Recall that Shrae's daughter-in-law was bitten by vampires in volume 1). He enlists some monstrous hags to help the boy, and they transfer the curse from the baby to the mother.
--The monster boat finds land, to the monsters' glee. Shrae's covenant with his dark masters sets him free of their influence (which also renders the sorcerer powerless) upon the completion of the mission. The monsters sense his weakness, but as the inevitable confrontation between man and monster looms large, both groups are attacked by fallen angels. The island exists because they protected it from the Great Flood. Many humans and monsters are killed or kidnapped.
--Kahlee secretly makes a new pact with Shrae's demonic former masters, then leads the survivors on a rescue mission. The "good" guys slaughter the fallen angels. Kahlee's pact requires that she kill her father. (There is the germ of an interesting idea in Kahlee reluctantly accepting great evil in order to protect her family, but it isn't explored.)

[Sarospice · Rating 3 out of 5]

The dark ark has landed and the monsters no longer have to rely on the humans. Now we wait for Noah and the food: his animals and humans! However, some other terrors survived the flood and they have hunger too!

[Jiro Dreams of Suchy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty interesting idea, loved the colors used, story never felt as interesting as the idea. Fun read- not much more. Ending is a new beginning- probably won’t continue on.

[47Time · Rating 5 out of 5]

The rains have stopped. Shrae gives birth to a baby, but it's a monster, likely from the vampire revolt. Shrae vows to protect the firat childbirth since the flood started, but he needs Nex's help. The vampire takes advantage of this to show that he has influence to rivals Shrae's. He has his loyal hags create a blood potion meant to transfer the baby's infection to another host. Before a host is chosen, Shrae's wife Ada drinks the potion. She effectively sacrifices herself for her family.

The Dark Ark soon sees signs of an island. Nex again organizes a revolt against Shrae. Before he can make his move, the monsters who already inhabit the island attack and capture some of them and Shrae himself. Kruul, whose cub was captured, is determined to find out the reason.

Shrae's daughter Khalee casts a spell in her father's chamber and becomes imbued with dark magic like he is. It's enough to have the attacking monsters, who turn out to be fallen amgels, fear her and even offer to follow her. She instead kills them, unwilling to share the new world with old monsters. Now she must take the reins from her father (whom she kills) and make sure that Noah's ark reaches the same island.

[Leah · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the brief span of time between me reading Dark Ark volumes 1 and 2, I had forgotten most of the characters and some of the subplots. I think that, unfortunately, says a lot.

So in volume 3, we have the Dark Ark making landfall after drifting around for 40 days and nights. Now, the monsters are all ready to be monsters and the people are…just there. A majority of the human characters are forgettable and interchangeable—I was getting Shrae’s sons and his daughter, Shrae’s daughter in law, and the other young woman character whom everyone is obsessed with for some reason mixed up. That’s BAD, considering they don’t even have the same hair color. There was nothing that makes anyone stand out though; there were no discernible personality traits.

For a last book in a series, the stakes felt very low. In the end, I was adrift (pun intended) with boredom and just wasn’t invested in how things went down, which is disappointing considering this subject matter is wild and could have ran with the wild premise.

[Gigli · Rating 4 out of 5]

»»» A compra:
Comprei junto com os restantes dois volumes na Amazon.es e este último volume foi decisivo em comprar todos os 3 volumes porque estava com uma excelente redução de preço.
Não tem edição em Portugal.

»»» A aventura:
Neste volume a arca dos monstros chega a terra. Que terra? Não sabem, mas descobrem que aqui já existem outros habitantes e que aqui eles, os monstros, não são os que caçam, mas os que são caçados.

»»» Sentimento final:
Muito bom.
Bom volume final (será final?), com um twist inesperado ao darem com terra e esta ter uns estranhos e poderosos habitantes.

»»» Nota final (capa e outras considerações):
--- [Capa] – Capa excelente, talvez das mais cativantes com o fantástico manticore em relevo.
--- [Ilustração] – Mantêm-se os tons carregados e soturnos e o traço que bem serve os monstros e os locais apresentados mas não tão bem os seres humanos.

»»» Uma espreitadela:

[Alex E · Rating 3 out of 5]

One thing the main character Shea, and the rest of his family didn't think all the way through is what happens when their ark finally hits land? In this one, we see how accomplishing their task actually dooms them in a way as the inevitability of a bad ending is a logical by product of having this dark ark full of monsters and evil creatures.

Because of course the monsters want to kill and eat Shae's family once they reach land. It reminds me of that fable of the scorpion and the frog. The scorpion will always sting the frog because it's just in his nature, just like it's in these monster's nature to eat/destroy humans. However the appearance of some unexpected hunters slow down the monsters long enough for Shae and his daughter to put up a fight, with some unexpected sacrifices needing to be made.

Cullen Bunn's story is imaginative and really entertaining so far. And the twists and turns he writes to further the drama are in tone with the rest of the story and not far stretches in this world of monsters, vampires, and fallen angels. I'm looking forward to seeing how he wraps it all up in the next one.

[Adam Rodgers · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third and concluding part in the Dark Ark storyline, where the monster filled vessel finally finds land.

Despite being the final part of this story Bunn reveals in his introduction there will be a further installment after this, which immediately sets up this volume for an anticlimax. The narrative moves along at a brisk pace, but in doing so steals much of the poignancy that could have been derived from the new threats and sacrifices that are made in this volume. While this is still a solid read, it lacks the originality and pathos of its predecessors.

[Francesca Giardiello · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dopo tutta l'aspettativa e il mondo costruito, la narrazione si perde, questo volume poteva benissimo non esistere e la storia non ne avrebbe risentito. Manca qualcosa, forse c'è stato un calo di forze o di attenzione, altrimenti non si spiega.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

La pioggia ha finalmente cessato di cadere e l'arca oscura ha trovato la terra promessa.

E così che inizia una nuova era per umani, mostri, e un altra forza misteriosa, non c'è mai pace per i nostri naufraghi.

[Jon Huff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this volume ended on a real high, developing in different ways.

[Elizabeth Chang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excited for the next one!