Michael Turner's Fathom: The World Below: Book 1

Michael Turner's Fathom: The World Below #1

by Kevin Andrew Murphy

Aspen Matthews has no memories of her life before the age of 11, although she does recall being aboard the cruise ship Paradise when it docked in San Diego-ten years after it mysteriously disappeared.. Now, a decade after the Paradise's unexplained reappearance, Aspen is a marine biologist who feels strangely drawn to the water for reasons she can't even begin to understand. What she does understand, though, is that the answers to the questions that continually haunt her-who she is, where she came from-can only be found far beneath the waves, in a world of hidden wonders-and hidden dangers....

Genres: Comics

320 pages, Paperback

First published November 26, 2002

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

VERY cool. Read this with a concurrent re-read of the first series from Top Cow.

Lots of insider info from Michael added.

If the artwork from the comic were included this would have been PERFECT!!!

[Theediscerning · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars.

How it all begins – or rather, how it all begins if you can't stump up the 45 flippin' £ for the Definitive Edition. The publishers once more give us this opening cycle of nine issues, and pretend they weren't just months ago insisting that all the subsidiaries and extras were essential. When reviewing it then I said

"the first arc is near-great – a meaty introduction to a great world, one that effortlessly knocks Aquaman's decades of history into a cocked hat. But it's still not perfect – there's some really poor artwork at key moments, and a problem arising from the art making too many people look the same just when you really need to know who's who. (The script, having two people do the same job at different times, doesn't help there, either.) "

So, basically nothing's changed. It's decent and then some, but not an immediate, please-all classic. But do, in some form or other, dip your toe in these waters.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a few issues of the Fathom comic years ago, and I remember I liked it but more for the art than the story. This novel however showed that there is a good story behind the pretty pictures. There's an underwater race on Earth, technologically advanced and unknown to surface dwellers. As we've seen before in comics like Aquaman and Namor, there's a group that wants to live in peace with the surface, and a group that wants to conquer the surface. Aspen is a being of both worlds, probably the most powerful of either race, and she's caught in the middle. Sounds a lot like Aquaman, but there is a little more going on here.

This was a good read that moved right along, but unfortunately I don't think the novel series was ever finished. I think it's the same basic story as the comic series, though, so I should be able to find out what happens there.

Good read, really better than I went in expecting.

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember this book being a lot better than it was the 2nd time around, 10 years later. The story is great, and I definitely identify with Aspen's connection to the sea and her feeling of being manipulated by various forces. But it's not told as well as it could have been. At this point I think I'd rather read the comics with Michael Turner's gorgeous illustrations.

[Penguin Rudd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read!