By: Jonathan Hickman (writer), Nick Pitarra (art), Jordie Bellaire (colors) and Rus Wooton (letters)
The Story: It’s a Superpower team-up.
A few things (with minor SPOILERS): 1). Story shows up. – This really hit the spot. I’d said in my “Top Picks” column for the week that I’ve enjoyed TMP, but was looking forward to getting an actual story instead of a series of done-in-one vignettes about particular characters. That clever Hickman–he knew just want we wanted. It’s so timely to get a legit story at this point. Even though this has been a nifty series, there is a limit to how far you can spin this concept of slightly-changed/demented WWII-era scientists. Eventually, you have to give those characters something to do. Knowing Hickman, it will be something wacky, raw and inventive.
2). Rich collection of characters. – Even considering Point #1 above, because the first 6 issues have really just introduced the characters without plunging them into a “mission”, we really know these characters now. We kinda have a sense of how they’ll react in certain circumstances and that predictability can be kinda fun. Knowing that we’re going to get this kind of reaction from alt-Oppenheimer or that kind of comment from Von Braun is a lot of fun.
3). Like how USA > USSR. – I really like how this comic didn’t go into making the American-based science team equal to the Soviet-based science team. We’ve got more and ours are smarter! USA! USA! Suck it you commie bastards! Oh…sorry. (Plus…that’s of course how it really worked out anyway.)
4). Overcolored in places? – There were a few places in this issue where I thought Bellaire was going a little too whacky with the Blue and Red monochromatic panels. It may not have been her; perhaps it was in the script. I know it’s linked to Oppenheimer’s moods or something, but I honestly can’t keep track of that guy and don’t see what it adds to the story for him to be bouncing in and out of characters. Just have him be a snarly cannibal and let it be.
5). Raw and unflinching. – How many comics are willing to depict good, old Harry Truman as a whack-a-do Masonic leader who runs orgies in the Oval Office? In just this one panel we have: dudes blowing dudes, a dude humping a sheep, multiple sheep chopped in two, torture, a kiddie pool full of snakes, a toilet in the corner, a dude dressed up as a baby, a dude dressed up as a Twinkie, people chasing each other with swords and a pizza deliver guy. This isn’t one of those panels where you think: I wish I could be there. But it is reassuring to know that the storytellers aren’t going to flinch away from any type of subject matter that’s necessary to tell the story. This type of thing helps to establish what the “maximum volume” of the series is.
6). Pitarra doing a nice job. – I haven’t always been the biggest Pitarra fan (didn’t like The Red Wing much at all), but he’s doing a fine job on this comic. I mean, this isn’t artwork I want placed in my casket when I die (that would be Bruce Timm pin-ups, btw), but his kinda lumpy, kinda messy style works really well for this era of story. I find it interesting that the messiness of the character seems inversely related to their level of mania: The messiest are General Graves and Von Braun, but they’re probably the most sane of the group. Oppenheimer, on the other hand, looks pretty tidy even though he is a full-on loon.
Conclusion: Another really strong issue that begins to tell a bigger story with these characters we’ve become fond of.
Grade: A-
– Dean Stell
Grade
Conclusion