I’ve always been fascinated by what dwells beneath the waves, and that fascination is often paired with a bit of terror. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Creature from the Black Lagoon has been my favorite monster for as long as I can remember. There’s something about this dead-eyed beast swimming gracefully through the murky depths that makes him feel scary in ways that Frankenstein, the Mummy, or even Dracula don’t.
I gather that I’m not alone in my appreciation for this amphibious abnormality, as Universal Studios has made many, many attempts to revisit the Black Lagoon. However, despite everyone from John Landis to John Carpenter getting involved in remakes and reboots of the beloved 1954 classic, none of these projects got off the ground.
Attempts to bring back the Gill-Man fell to the wayside every few years since Carpenter’s take on Creature from the Black Lagoon was shot down in favor of Jaws 3D back in 1982, though many of the other iterations of the project don’t have such a definite reason as to why they never materialized.
The early aughts saw Guillermo del Toro pitch a version of the story that saw the female lead reciprocate the Creature’s romantic feelings. When del Toro’s idea was rejected, he decided that he’d make it regardless of whether Universal gave him their blessing– and that’s how 2017’s The Shape of Water was conceived. The film was beautiful and emotional, and it won Best Picture at the Oscars. Most importantly, it was the new take on the beloved creature feature that fans always wanted.
But if del Toro made the definitive follow-up to Creature from the Black Lagoon, then that begged the question: was there any direction left for Universal to take the property in?
Fortunately, Creature from the Black Lagoon Lives! proves that there are still uncharted waters in the Black Lagoon. The first of a series of Universal Monsters titles from Skybound Entertainment / Image Comics, Lives! takes a unique approach to the “man is the real monster” theme by ditching subtlety and making the main antagonist a serial killer. The story follows a journalist named Kate as she follows a man who attempted to drown her– like several other women before her– down to the Amazon Rainforest.
I love the way Dan Watters and Ram V gradually feed you this information across the first issue, which uses the Creature surprisingly sparingly. However, the Creature still has a presence long before we actually see it on-panel, as the initial issue has lots of imagery evocative of everyone’s favorite fish-man. The first page shows Kate being forced underwater by an unseen figure, and while you can see that she’s being assaulted by someone whose hands have skin rather than scales, it’s still a beat you associate with a certain amphibious beast.
I can’t praise Matthew Roberts’ art enough. He really knows how to map out a page. Panels are frequently packed with intricate details (look at all that vegetation), except when there’s a need to highlight the isolation of certain settings or the overwhelming depths of the Black Lagoon. I particularly like the ghoulish faces that Kate sees in the natural world as her obsession drags her further into madness. The look of the characters is also great. Kate always looks like she’s been through hell, a certain minor character from the film returns with facial injuries previously concealed by bandages, and the finale presents a new, delightful B-movie abomination that I don’t want to spoil.
Roberts’ also redesigns the creature in a way that doesn’t get rid of anything that made the Millicent Patrick original “Gill-Man” such a classic. Every time there’s an official Universal project with the Creature, he’s always updated in some dramatic way (they gave him dreads for the theme park musical), but the changes that Roberts makes are relatively small, with the exception of those big, glowing blue eyes that really contribute to his spooky vibe.
Dave Stewart and Trish Mulvihill both color Roberts’ artwork with these haunting shades of blue and green that really compliment them. There’s a surprising consistency between their styles, and you can’t tell that the colorist changes halfway through the miniseries.
Creature from the Black Lagoon Lives! is a bloody, exciting story about obsession that isn’t afraid to do something new with a decades-old horror icon. It’s a certifiable “Monster Mash”– if you will– that’s sure to please both longtime fans and those who are taking their first plunge into the Black Lagoon.
