Ocean (comics)

Lore & Background

The series was originally intended to be a film script and then as a single graphic novel, leading to an absence of the traditional cliffhangers associated with monthly comics. Set in an era 'one hundred years from now', Ocean tells the tale of Nathan Kane, a United Nations special weapons inspector, and his mission to Cold Harbor, a UN research station in orbit around Europa. The Harbor's scientists have discovered a set of nonhuman artifacts in the ocean deep below the ice that covers the moon, and further research reveals that the artifacts are the powerful weapons, wormhole-based transport system, and cryogenic resting place of a conquering warlike race of prehuman beings. This culture's home world was located between Mars and Jupiter, and in their ongoing civil war against each other, they wrought great damage on Mars, which used to be a far more temperate, colonized Earthlike planet before its atmosphere was destroyed in the same conflict that also utterly destroyed their home planet, its remains eventually becoming the asteroid belt. This last act was apparently a threshold event of some kind that caused the culture to lay down their arms, possibly out of shame or out of fear of some kind of reprisal. As a result, they put themselves and their technology in suspended animation deep within Europa's ocean. One of the Cold Harbor scientists suggests that this was motivated chiefly by their inability to live with themselves. However, before doing so, the culture seeded Earth with the genetic material that allowed human life to grow. Thanks to the unscrupulous acts of the insane manager of a weapons testing facility also in orbit around Europa, owned by an interplanetary corporation named Doors, the race starts to wake up, putting the Earth itself at risk from the resurgence of the extremely powerful and violent precursor race, and Nathan and the Harbor scientists are practically the only ones that can stop them.

Reader's Guide

Ocean is significant as a comic that deliberately avoided monthly cliffhangers due to its origin as a planned film script and graphic novel, a structural choice noted in the article. Its legacy includes a trade paperback collection in 2005 and a Deluxe Edition in 2015 that combined it with Ellis' Orbiter under DC's Vertigo imprint. The comic was optioned by Gianni Nunnari and Nick Wechsler, who have history with films based on comics—Nunnari produced 300—and the duo are slated to produce a film based on Ronin. Ryan Condal, writer of the spec script Galahad, has been approached by Warner Brothers to produce a screenplay for them. The article also references the 2013 film Europa Report about a crewed mission to Europa, placing Ocean within a broader fictional context of Jupiter's moons. No further details on the film adaptation's progress or reception are provided.

Did You Know?

• Ocean was originally intended as a film script and then as a single graphic novel, resulting in no traditional cliffhangers.
• The precursor race's home world was located between Mars and Jupiter, and its remains became the asteroid belt.
• The precursor race seeded Earth with genetic material that allowed human life to grow.
• The comic was optioned by Gianni Nunnari, who produced the film 300.