Comic Book Review: The Vault #2

The Vault #2

Story by: Sam Sarkar

Art by: Garrie Gastonny and Sakti Yuwono

Cover by: Garrie Gastonny and Bagus Hutomo

Published by: Image Comics

Cover Price: $3.50

Doctors Michael Page and Gabrielle Parker have found a strange sarcophagus sunken in one of the pits off of Sable Island, "the Graveyard of the North Atlantic." Hoping for treasure, their equipment tells them there is a bizarre skeleton, not quite human looking, inside.

Now the team who has put so much time and money into the search for treasure off of Sable Island have to decide what to do. Against the wishes of one voice of reason, the sarcophagus is opened revealing what is believed to be a sculpture of some sort with a rod and gold medallion.

But tensions get worse as the rod and medallion disappear and the not human skeleton sculpture...awakens...

It is no disrespect when I say Sarkar's horror comic seems written more with a movie director's eye than a comic writer's. Some subtleties which work onscreen are not quite as effective in comic format, but still show an impressive scope and vision for the tale he tells. A shift from dream sequence to reality is muted, the sudden, unexpected movement is spoiled by an errant eye glancing across a panel too early. But that does not belittle the tale here. The question is, with one issue left, can Sarkar pull it off. What happened to the rod and medallion? Did someone in the expedition know what they would find? And can a skeleton sculpture be killed?

Gastonny and Yuwono's art convey the story well, although without any of the grand, beautiful, creepy splash pages like issue #1.

I look forward to the next and final issue and wonder if Sarkar isn't hoping for some follow up series to finish the tale. After all, we have question from this issue compounding the question about the angels and demons opening in issue #1. It seems like a lot to wrap up in one issue.