Spoilers!
I’ve been trying to make an effort this year to read more of my graphic novels, and I had a delightful time reading Jeff Parker’s and Steve Lieber’s 2010 standalone, Underground, from Image Comics, an independent comic books publisher. Parker and Lieber met back in 1993 and assisted each other on various projects over the years, but Underground was their first collaboration. Lieber originally came up with the story, although he worried about keeping a “realistic cave interior visually interesting over an entire book,” so he did a “pilot” of sorts in Image’s Four Letter Worlds Anthology, published in 2005. Lieber turned to Parker to write the full book story, and he would do the art. Ron Chon did the colors, which is an important visual storytelling element of this story. To that point, if Lieber was worried about keeping the interior of a cave visually interesting across a whole book, then he need not worry. Lieber and Parker succeeded in providing a visually compelling, white-knuckle, harrowing spelunking thriller. Underground had the vibe of an early 1990s thriller film (highly complimentary!), with fun characters and action story beats. Perhaps similar to 1993’s Cliffhanger, but in a cave.
Wesley “Wes” Fischer is our bad-ass spelunker, who happens to be a park ranger in Marion, Kentucky, where Stillwater Cave exists relatively preserved in its natural state. She’s interested in preserving that natural environment, free of the dangers turning it into a tourist spot would necessarily invite, such as damaging oily fingers, risk to million-year-old stalactites, and so on. On the other hand, the rural town of Marion needs the boon to its economy Stillwater Cave tourism would bring. One local store owner, Winston Bigfoot, is particularly outspoken about the project.
Wes also just had an almost-one-night-stand with fellow park ranger, Seth, who she was going to say bye-bye, too, but she couldn’t figure out how, so they decide to go to the local diner instead. After a confrontation with Bigfoot, they go to work. Seth trades another ranger for the Stillwater trail, where it’s ominously reported that one of the cave keys is missing. Turns out, Bigfoot is paying a few guys to start dynamiting the cave to make a tourist entrance. This, before anything has been made official and right as a member of the governor’s office is set to explore the site.
Seth confronts the two guys in Stillwater and one of the classic movie doofuses panics and detonates the dynamite knocking Seth out. The two guys get away and bring in the lead Bigfoot henchman, Harden, to help them out, who brings two additional men to go “collect the body” of Seth. Before that can happen, Wes arrives and helps Seth. That sets off our thriller through the cave, as Wes uses her spelunking prowess to evade Harden and his goons. Along the way, one of them is killed after methane mixes with the guano from the bats (their poop) in the cave and blows up, and another accidentally hangs himself after a rope climb down a cliff where they tried to attack Wes and Seth. Thankfully, but harrowingly, Wes and Seth fall into the water below.
What I loved about the visual storytelling element is that once inside the cave, there’s a brownish red monochromatic style to the comic (contrasted to the very colorful outside the cave look). To Lieber’s credit, that makes the interior of the cave compelling, especially with his close-up facial art of Wes, Seth, Harden, and the others’ distress and anger. Then, when Wes and Seth are in the water, it’s a more blueish monochromatic style. I thought it was all very effective.
There were two story beats that had my hands sweaty imaging them — and I mean, caves in general give me baseline fear due to the claustrophobia factor and fear of a, well, cave in. The first was Wes and Seth going through the water underneath the ceiling of the cave with barely room for oxygen and then running out of that space to breathe, so they swam an unknown distance until there was space to lift up and breathe again. Phew, no thank you, but also, what else are you going to do when guys with guns are chasing you? The second was toward the end of the book when Wes and Seth need to ascend a steep cave wall and do a double chimney climb, or chimneying. Google it, and then imagine two people with their backs to each other doing it. I’m getting sweaty fingers imagining it again! As Wes said, it’s a counterinitiative move: when going up a rockface, you instinctively want to hug the wall, whereas with chimneying, you’re pushing your feet away from the wall in order to climb up. Agh!
Harden shoots and kills his own man, the third death, for wanting to turn back around and give up the chase. The final man in his group, who is the brother of the first man burned, so you would think he might be out for revenge, instead tries to lie about discovering Wes and Seth, only for Harden to knock him out. Harden shoots at Wes, and Seth tackles him through the opening of the cave, which is abutted by a waterfall that happens to be right near the diner from the beginning of the book!
Bigfoot would serve time in prison for his role in everything, and ultimately, Stillwater would become a tourist attraction, but with Wes leading the tours as an educational opportunity. She figured it was going to turn into a tourist attraction whether she wanted it to or not, so better to have some modicum of control over it. And as mentioned, tourism itself can be leveraged for education and awareness about the need for conservation.
What a fun, thrilling story where the artistry and color choices heightened the thrill. If you ever want to give an independent, non-superhero comic a try, this is a good one to start with.
Milam's Musings 