Leroy Douresseaux Reviews The Vault #2

"Don't open that..."

THE VAULT #2 (OF 3)
IMAGE COMICS

WRITER: Sam Sarkar
ARTIST: Garrie Gastonny
COLORS: Sakti Yuwono
COVER: Garrie Gastonny and Bagus Hutomo
28pp, Color, $3.50 U.S.

Sam Sarkar is a former actor turned television writer and is now an executive at Johnny Depp’s production company, Infinitum Nihil (which is a dumb ass name, I know, but I love me some Depp). Garrie Gastonny of Imaginary Friends Studios drew Warren Ellis’ Supergod and Radical Publishing’s Caliber: First Canon of Justice.

Sarkar is the writer of and Gastonny is the artist on The Vault, a three-issue miniseries from Image Comics. The story focuses on a small team of treasure hunters struggling to excavate a dangerous treasure pit before a massive storm arrives. Nothing can prepare these people for what they are about to unleash.

Archeologists and treasure hunters, Dr. Gabrielle Parker and Dr. Michael Page, seek to unlock the secrets of the treasure pit at Sable Island, known as the “Graveyard of the North Atlantic.” Their team has found something extraordinary.

As The Vault #2 opens, a hurricane bears down on the island. Inside the base, the team squabbles over what to do with the large stone sarcophagus they found in the treasure pit. Should they open it now or wait until they are at a facility better equipped to handle this delicate discovery, as Gabrielle wants? Inside the sarcophagus is a skeleton of something that looks human, but is clearly not.

Well, the first issue was not a fluke. The Vault is an absolutely riveting suspense thriller because this second issue does not let up on the mystery and still offers a thick atmosphere of impending doom. Think of this as Raiders of the Lost Ark meets The Abyss meets The Mummy (1999). I like this enough to read it again.

A-

For more information about the artist, please visit http://thegerjoos.deviantart.com/.