If you want to break free of the system, Redum Anshargal
can offer you a place at his side.
With Atlantis now a world superpower, Anshargal and his
hostage-protege Ukinnu Alal hunt the Amphibian, a legendary creature that may
be the key to an air-breathing life on land. In UNDERTOW #1, writer Steve
Orlando (MYSTERY IN SPACE) and artist Artyom Trakhanov bring pulp monster
adventure to comics and debut a new take on Atlantis in this new series.
In UNDERTOW, Atlantis is a world superpower and breathing
air is something of a rare phenomena. “UNDERTOW takes a lot of expectations
about Atlantis fiction and turns them on their head. Here, Atlanteans evolved
to the spot where humans are in our world, or maybe just a bit past it. This
Earth is fundamentally different because of it, from the geography to the
animals to the technology,” explained Orlando, “Atlantis has had to develop
technology that can function underwater… Those who breathe water are the ruling
power. And those who breathe air? Humans are a wild species, living like pack
animals all over the surface, adapting to their environments. Wild, thick-coated
polar humans, hairless tropical humans, even monstrous humans evolved from
island gigantism. For Redum Anshargal, finding an Atlantean that can breathe
air might just be his chance to give his people a shot at life on land, a
chance to finally be free of Atlantis' corruption.”
Typically, Atlantis is thought of as “the lost city,” but
in UNDERTOW, the opposite is true. “This was a chance to take Atlantis a few
centuries into the present day, just like most other monarchies. And making it
modern makes it a great way to show the truly strange face of the deep ocean,”
said Orlando. “Now Atlantis can do what speculative fiction should--it can be a
weird mirror to our own world, just a half step away--more relatable than ever
before, and thus, even more frightening.”
For more info on what UNDERTOW is and where the idea came
from, check out this interview with Steve Orlando on the official Image Comics
website, imagecomics.com.
Join Anshargal on his watertight city barge and explore
the wild surface world in UNDERTOW #1, which will be available in stores on
February 19, 2014 for $2.99. Pre-orders can be placed using Diamond Code
DEC130486.