Flashback Friday: Micheal Turner's Fathom #0 & #1 (Three Covers)

I was digging through a box looking for something to read and pulled out Fathom.  This was suppose to be Micheal Turner's next big creation back when it debuted.  No matter what you thought of Turner, you had to admit he could draw women.  Granted, they were endowed with extremely long legs and oh so lovely curves, but in the comicbook industry that sells.  Aspen Matthews would add water and even more skin to the artwork.  Sadly, the cancer that took this talent from us also took the steam out of Fathom as a book.  Turner was not the best storyteller, but he was good at laying a foundation for his creations.  When his energy waned, so did what Fathom could have been.  There have been those that took up the creative process, but never were they able to carry on this character like Turner's other big creation, The Witchblade.

Issue#0 tells a story of Aspen and a scuba diving class that will be retold in shortened form in Issue #1.  This issue is more of a teaser than anything major to the origin.  It gave us a hint of Aspen Matthews and the outstanding visuals Turner had in store for this book.  Issue #1 gives us more of a telling of who Aspen is and what is going on in the oceans of the world.  Turner created a great conspiracy right at the start.  He had the U.S. And Japan in a tense research and military aspect.  There is a mysterious craft that can vaporize aircraft.  Then there is Aspen.  She who is an orphan and part of a group of people on a cruise ship that had been missing for ten years.

Aspen is leaving for deep waters as part of an undersea research group.  The underwater art is amazing and whether or not the science is correct, Turner portrays it with such confidence you are certain it is true.  The other side of the book, the conspiracy of a threat from the depths gets amped up with the Naval might of the U.S.A.  The aircraft and ship are wonderfully rendered.  We also get a submersible plane that plays heavily into the final pages.  It really drives to a great finish with a torpedo and lives threatened as we see the man that Aspen feels she has a connection to in a glass cylinder.  It is a good start.

This is a book where art rules, but it would be so good to see someone take this character and this world Micheal Turner created and do a new approach.  I would like to see a story of power like Ron Marz has had with his long run on Witchblade.  To see a great storyteller and a superb artist make Aspen stand tall as Micheal Turner could have done would be a great tribute to the man.

BDS