Fathom (1992) #1-3 by David DeVries, Tim Eldred and Phil Moy
Is “renowned” the correct word to use for somebody responsible for probably the worst comic book I’ve read in years?
Anyway, my expectations for this book couldn’t be lower.
Well, OK, that doesn’t look bad, really.
The plot is, basically, that Fathom is being sent back in time to help some guy… by a water godess I don’t think we’ve seen before? (Oh, if you’re new to this blog series — this series is a spinoff from the long-running Elementals series.)
But OK, fine.
Err… OK, so an evil demon wants to kill the guy and Fathom helps him. Check! So far, so normal.
But now she’s going to be enslaved to the guy? And she objects, because… she’s Jewish!? I know, I know, gotta get those things that the author knows about the character into the book somehow, but I’d rather think that anybody would object.
Perhaps that’s just me.
After a pretty normal first issue (which was not marked as being the start of a three issue mini series), the final two (which are) go totally off the rails. It’s like the writer just said “fuck it” and the artist said “I have no idea what I’m drawing”, because nothing makes sense. “His life… or the bottle!” and then he licks the bottle? Is he threatening to eat the bottle? She doesn’t care about the guy, anyway — he’s enslaved her, and we’ve seen no redeeming qualities so far. So why does she care?
So… she went back into the bottle, and then the demon didn’t kill they guy!? What, and I cannot emphasise this enough: What.
And then he does it again?! Are these pages printed out of order? Did everybody involve have a brain aneurysm?!
Well, that’s nice.
So the solution to the series: Fathom creates a mystical infinity machine out of a guy spewing water, and it works because of things.
You can’t say that’s not original.
As deranged super-hero comics go, this is the most deranged one I’ve read, and I’ve read DeVries’ previous book, too.
The Slings and Arrows Comic Guide #2, page #244:
FATHOM
Comico: 3 issue miniseries 1987, 3 issue miniseries 1992-1993
Two dull miniseries spun-off from the briefly popular
Elementals. In the first, slightly superior, instalment, writer
Lawrence Shick ponderously recaps our aquatic
superheroine’s origin – sailing accident leads to Rebecca
Golden’s reincarnation as ‘Wet! Wild! Webbed!’ Fathom,
acolyte of watery deity Aqua – before sending her to a strange
underwater city where she’s literally treated like a Princess.
Artist Jill Thompson here blandly mimics the work of series
creator Bill Willingham. In the 1990s story Fathom is
summoned by Aqua to battle the dreaded Dera Aeshma,
“despoiler of the world’s pure waters”, a turgid eco-thriller
from David DeVries and Tim Eldred.~AL
I can barely find a mention of this series in 90s comics magazines, so it pretty much sank without a trace.
Eldred has written about the experience:
It sounds effortless when I state it that way, but it was a bit more harrowing than this, entirely because of who I had to work with: the new owner who took over the company in 1990.
“Notorious” is the most polite descriptor I can come up with. Others have been offered in print. Deceitful. Hustler. Nightmare. Enigma. Bewildering. Crook. And, based on my own experience, fast talker. The guy could talk your ear off.
This is the only review I can find of this series:
There are also a lot of unanswered questions that I assume will be followed up on in the story arc, like why these demons are after Mustapha and why Aqua is subjecting Fathom to this? Then there’s the fanservice of Fathom in the bath and Aqua’s design that’s not really needed but at least Aqua puts her in a swimsuit of some kind when she transports her back to 992 AD.
The series has never been collected or reprinted.