Sea of Red #13
© Image

Mania Grade: A-
Issue: 13
Authors: Rick Remender, Kieron Dwyer, Francesco Francavilla, Paul Harmon
Publisher: Image
Price: $3.50

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"Sea of Red" #13

Rick Remender and his team wrap up their 13-issue epic of vampires on the high seas.  While they’re hardly the first entry into the “vampirates” subgenre, they’ve managed to craft a tale with historical resonance and a distinct visual style that has made the series worthwhile, if marred by an occasionally convoluted narrative and a few errors in spelling and grammar.   

By this issue, the vampire apocalypse has wiped out most of humanity.  Lazarus and Marco Esperanza have returned to the temple that once concealed the urn that held an unending flow of Christ’s blood – the one substance that can return a vampire to humanity, and the key to undoing the horror unleashed on humanity by Lazarus.  Marco finally confronts his old master in a last ditch effort to atone for his years of atrocity.  Ultimately, his decision allows him to bestow a gift on the film crew that rescued him in the first issue – long ago turned into vampires – and leave a letter for his still-missing son, Diego.  I’d drop huge spoilers for the entire series if I explained much more than that, so I apologize if it all sounds a bit vague. 

I must give Remender and his team credit for both finishing Sea of Red and concluding in a manner best suited for the story.  Though it premiered as an ongoing, the team realized that the story finished gracefully here and didn’t drag the book out.  As such, we’re left with a self-contained, yet epic tale of vampires and pirates with a cast of well-developed and morally complex characters.  By the end of the series, most of the cast has flipped sides and turned shades of gray quite a few times.  The story is about not heroes and villains, but people caught in a supernatural ordeal of immense gravity with little time to react or assess.  This thirteenth issue only drives that point home, as Marco’s moral journey concludes on a high note and one of the series antagonists turns out to be innocent of a heinous crime from earlier in the series. 

Sea of Red also stands apart through a dirty, rough visual style that still conveys a surprising level of detail.  Rather than just going with black and white or even gray tones, Francesco Francavilla and Paul Harmon employ a muddy mixture of black and shades of red.  Thematically, it fits the series perfectly.   

While this issue marks the end of the series, a comprehensive hardcover collection should be available relatively soon.  If you like vampires and pirates with a good dose of Biblical intrigue, you might want to check it out.  

Questions? Comments? Let us know what you think at comicscape@mania.com.