Artist – Howard Purcell
Inker – Sheldon Moldoff

Once again there is no credited writer for this issue of Sea Devils and that is a shame as it features a story that moves the book’s direction forward by introducing a worldwide league of Sea Devils. No longer is it just a team of four people who patrol the seas but men and women all over the globe, relying on each other and knowing that they are part of a larger team should they ever need the help. With this new conglomeration of divers, the International Sea Devils hold their first meeting and listen to a tale as told by one of their members from the Calcutta Scuba Club across the world where they came across a submarine shaped like a hammerhead shark. Even more surprising was the fact that the ship would then face off against what appeared to be a man beneath the waves, accusing Captain X of robbing him of his mortal form. A battle would break out and the sub would face off against the man who had just transformed into a giant stingray. Sikki, the person relating the tale, goes on to tell of the battle and of how they simply vanished from one moment to the next. After a little conversation, Dane decides that he and his team will investigate and find out what is really going on. For an issue with no assumed writer, there is a lot going on in this book, including plotlines involving Dane’s missing father, Judy’s busted dreams, Biff’s supposed inferiority complex and Nicky’s juvenile actions which sometimes jeopardize the team. Some of these, specifically the last three make no sense given readers have seen little of these things in the past and one has to wonder how they made it into the book. The only one of the three storylines that makes any sense has to do with Biff who has been a little clumsy in the past but having an inferiority complex was never mentioned and it does seem out of place along with the rest. It made for a bit of a strange read, at least in part as whoever the writer was almost seemed to be diminishing the team, aside from Dane that is. His plotline played right into the main story as his father, who had been missing since he was but a child/teen turned out to be the mysterious Captain X. They reunite during the issue of course, and yet despite the happy reunion, it is not meant to last. What also makes this book quite interesting is that even though the Sea Devils won the day, they still lost where it really counted. Dane’s father could not be freed from his eternal prison, the hammerhead sub. In addition to that, Biff, Judy and Nicky though under the spell of the mystery foe, seem more unreliable than ever even though they ended up victorious. In short, this was a good, okay, slightly confusing issue that still managed to entertain. One can only hope that some of these story points go no further than this single outing.

3 out of 5