Submerged #2 Review

Writer: Vita Ayala/ Artist: Lisa Sterle / Vault Comics If you missed the first issue of Submerged, don’t fret! Issue #2 has just arrived and there’s still time to catch this train. Writer Vita Ayala has described the comic as a “A Queer & Brown contemporary retelling of the Orpheus/Eurydice myth set in the NYC subway.” Our first offering has introduced us to Elysia, one determined older sister who has seen some strange things while on a mission to find her always in trouble little brother, Angel. After running from something big and scary with wings last issue, she comes face to face with a new horror: this frightening woman who claims that she’ll never let go:

As visually terrifying as she is, the frantic need to be forgiven and to hold El with some kind of familiarity is unsettling on a whole other level.

In one of the best parts of this issue, Writer Ayala and Artist Sterle work together perfectly to have this particular female character become a manifestation of El’s upbringing – more so than the smothering comfort of her mother and we’re treated to three different flashbacks from her childhood. The first as a young child, the second as a pre-teen and the third as a teenager. These flashbacks do not feature Angel in any way and instead focus on El and her mother and the suffocating motherly affection that shames her, belittles her and makes scared in her own home, and eager to make her mother feel more at ease. It’s tough to read yet it sheds light on the complicate…