The Mercenary Sea #1 Review

Writer: Kel Symons
Art & Colors: Mathew Reynolds
Cover: Mathew Reynolds
Letters: Pat Brosseau
Editor: Sebastian Girner

Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Date: February 2014
Cover Price: $2.99

Title: “Nice Work If You Can Get It”

It’s 1938. Somewhere in the South Pacific, Jack and his band of mercenaries and expatriates are looking for treasure. With the war between Japan and China raging, It’s a rough time to be in those waters and of course things aren’t going so smoothly for the crew.

The Mercenary Sea #1 introduces us to the players in this high adventure in the South Seas. Mathew Reynolds sets up the mood perfectly in the opening pages with his out-of-focus backgrounds and the silhouetting of the characters against the lush jungle. The tension is palpable and you can almost hear the sounds coming from the animals that inhabit the location.

The characters seem like they were pulled right out of the original King Kong film. The way they interact, the personal conflicts, and the settings are exactly what you’d expect from the mystery/adventure story that we’re given by Kel Symons. Each page not only brings the reader closer to knowing what’s taking place, but also injects a greater mystery into the story.

The art and characters blend perfectly to tell of an adventure that you might see on a large theater screen in the late 1930s. There are spies, mercenaries, expats, runaways, and treasure hunters – everything you’d expect in such a story. The tale is captivating and engrossing without being kitschy. This is exactly the type of story that the industry needs.

The Mercenary Sea is a smart, atmospheric high adventure story that everyone should read. The characters are interesting and believable, the art pulls you into the story with it’s visual brilliance, and the book as a whole works amazingly well.

– The Comic Book Critic