Monday, July 25, 2016

The Deep # 1 (Marvel) (one-shot, 1977) [COMICS]

"A masterpiece of undersea suspense from the author of Jaws!" proclaims the cover to The Deep # 1, Marvel's 1977 adaptation of a "Columbia Pictures' Cinema Sensation!"  It's done by Doug Moench and Carmine Infantino, which is hard to argue with, and here's the gist.  In the middle of World War II, a ship carrying medical supplies sank during a storm off the coast of Bermuda.  In the present day (1977, that is), two divers are exploring a different shipwreck (from circa 1714) when they find a medallion.  The divers, David and Gail, decide to confer with a reclusive shipwreck expert named Romer Treece.  On the way back from meeting with Treece, they're mugged by some thugs working for a slug wanting drugs who goes by the name Cloche.  You see, that WWII ship was carrying 98,000 ampules of morphine, and Cloche plans to recover them for his drug-dealing business!  In order to forever win the War on Drugs, David and Gail decide they're going to blow up that shipwreck.  After fighting off a moray eel attack, the pair realize that there are two ships sunk right on top of each other! (the 1714 one and the WWII one).  There's a climactic undersea scene as our heroes survive cut air hoses and sharks to outwit Cloche, blow up the drug-filled ship, and recover a lost treasure trove.  Roll end credits, with David being played by one Nick Nolte and Cloche played by my movie co-star, Lou Gossett, Jr.  The Deep (movie) has a 36% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so maybe reading the comic would save you a lot of time!

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