Plunge #5 Review

Writer: Joe Hill

Pencils: Stuart Immonen

Colors: Dave Stewart
Letters: Deron Bennett
Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: July 28th, 2020

With the crew of the Derleth infested with alien worms, the crew of the McReady has to decide whether or not to help them escape the planet or try to resist them. Meanwhile, they realize they may die either way. The last issue ended with Captain Cage tearing out the first body that they found from the body bag, putting it in a headlock, and making everybody realize the corpse had been infested too.

In this issue they figure out pretty quick that this one was "playing dead" to be a Trojan horse, sneaking in "the enemy army" to attack from the inside when needed. They start thinking about a plan and using this invader to help them somehow, and Russel (the guy who has the soul-reading walkman, given to him from the worms, that is making him lose his mind) says he'll use the walkman to see into the worms. That's what they decide to do.

Here's what I don't get, though: the worms have a hive mind. You know this. Your secret plan isn't all that secret. The rest of the worms on the shore and in the water know what's going on in that room. Maybe don't talk about your plan in that same room. But that's why the corpse dares Russel to do it. It knows it will kill him, and that's what eventually happens. Russel finds himself inside the minds of the worms, swimming in cold water, and then falling to Earth.

Russel says that (yes, the poor grammar is on purpose because of the state he is in) "there was a fight something flung them down to earth - earth is prison earth is jail its cold gage its cold". Now, we know they can't touch the metal called Staelinn Geal like Cloax in The Dollhouse Children. This "battle" was the fight in the beginning of The Dollhouse Children where Cloax and Aparadon were falling down to Earth billions of years ago. The Staelinn Geal spear that Aparadon had, the only thing that could kill Cloax, shattered all over Ireland. That would mean those guys were ricocheted off, maybe road the atmosphere for a bit, and landed in the ocean just outside of Russia.

Then Russel starts bleeding from the eyes. He says what's in the hatch that they have to open (made from Staelinn Geal) is "an egg ready to make a baby." Is... is Cloax about to be reborn? Russel dies and then Lacome goes total heel. He locks them in the room of the McReady, and at first he's talking about what they have to offer to the planet if they leave and give us their technology, but then he starts talking about not caring about dying as long as he sees the Ingot. He saw it in the x-rays and it looked like "the face of god", and they promised he could hold it if he betrayed them.

So what does Gage do? He starts beating the living crap out of the infected corpse and using a saw to cut it up, probably trying to draw its friends to the ship as the worms inside are slaughtered. When they do show up, Foyle even says that the loss of his one brother is nothing compared to what they've lost. Gage then says he'll make the dive himself if they let his crew go, but Foyle insists that Moriah is the one to do it. So they head to the mainland. The crew members of the McReady are tied to ancient posts that will be underwater when the tide comes in a few hours.

Moriah takes the Plunge...

Bits and Pieces

This is still the second-best book in comics right now (well, for the ones I'm actually reading). A great story, great characters, great dialogue, great artwork. It really hits everything and has a modern horror movie feel to it (one of the good ones, not the trash ones). The final issue is next month and what I hope is in that hatch is actually what's in there it could mean Hill House round two and I'm all for that. 

9/10