Here is the latest in our year-long look at one cool comic (whether it be a self-contained work, an ongoing comic or a run on a long-running title that featured multiple creative teams on it over the years) a day (in no particular order whatsoever)! Here's the archive of the moments posted so far!

Today we look at the nifty Warren Ellis and Chris Sprouse mini-series, Ocean!

Enjoy!

Warren Ellis is a master at the slow burn - slowly reveal details of the story (with some action mixed in here and there, of course) while also delivering details about the characters involved until the point where the action REALLY picks up - and by this time, you have a fully realized story AND characters that you feel like you know.

That is certainly the case with Ocean, the graphic novel turned mini-series that Ellis did with the great Chris Sprouse (since it was originally intended as a graphic novel, the issue breaks are often somewhat abrupt, but read as one story it is totally fine).

The story follows a UN weapons inspector in the future named Benjamin Sisko...sorry, Nathan Kane, as he is caught up in a dicey situation on a mining/scientific exploration satellite orbiting the Jupiter moon, Europa.

We first meet Kane when he is traveling into outer space from New York City on a space ferry. He waxes nostalgic about the original days of the space program...





This is not just character-building here, as well, as readers of the series might recall.

Once on the first space station, Kane discovers that things are not as simple as they might seem, as he is attacked by a group of killers out for his head. He takes care of them easily enough...





Once on Europa, he discovers the first part of the big "to do" - beneath the icy exterior of Europa lies an ocean, and in that ocean lies thousands and thousands of sarcophagi, containing....





Ellis quickly gets us acquainted with the crew on the station...





Very nice banter, eh?

To this point, we also have to give major props to Chris Sprouse - he's a marvel when it comes to facial expressions, but he also handles the technology aspect of the comic quite nicely.

Finally, upon a mission to the ocean beneath, Kane learns the OTHER part of what they discovered, and the reason that he is there...











That, in a nutshell, is what the comic is about - ancient lifeforms (who we later discover have a connection to the beginning of the human race) are in hibernation along with their world-shattering weaponry, and some greedy corporation has decided to jump start the countdown clock to extinction.

There are still four issues of this coolness, but I'll leave that all for you to see when you purchase the trade collection of Ocean!