New comic book day was pretty exciting this week with a number of new books and new titles coming in from Image Comics, but there was none I was looking forward to more than Jonathan Hickman‘s The Manhattan Projects #1: Infinite Oppenheimers. In fact, I was getting worried that I was setting my expectations too high.
No such problem here.
This book is a must-read. If you missed the first printing, Hickman took all of his Image comic books digital this Wednesday as well, so you can download it right now. However, if you need to feel the pages between your fingers, then April 4th is your date, but bring some extra cash with you because that’s the day issue #2 is coming out also and you might as well just scoop it up from there. In fact, go ahead and call your shop and tell them to put The Manhattan Projects on your pull list.
Go ahead. I’ll wait…
OK, I see you are skeptical. I see you would like some further evidence to back my claim. Fine, fine. Here we go:
There are four credited names on the inside cover and I’ve got something nice to say about each one of them. There’s Jonathan Hickman, the writer, Nick Pitarra, the artist, Cris Peter, on colors and Rus Wooton, letters.
The story is fantastic. I don’t want to give away any spoilers for you, but I promise, by the end of the book, you will think that the real goal of The Manhattan Projects was to blow your mind in nuclear fashion. The art is seamless as the panels vary from characters we are all too familiar with, to new creations, the scientific, mechanics and even the fantastic. Add to that the colors that enhance and, at times, even tell part of the story and you have a visual masterpiece. And finally, the lettering (I promised I had something to say about everyone) is clear and then sometimes it emotes – using the shrinking letters for whispers and bold for emphasis – just enough to make an impact without it becoming cliche.
Is that enough for you? I’m not spoiling the story for you. I will rehash the blurb from the press releases, just in case you don’t remember, but that is all!
In The Manhattan Projects, he [Hickman] creates an alternate history in which the the U.S. government’s development of an atomic bomb is a front for bringing together the world’s brightest minds for something even more dangerous. The Second World War rages underground in ways the public can never imagine, and the men of The Manhattan Projects are the United States’ last and best defense against the supernatural forces of the Axis powers.
OK fellow Nerds! It’s a must-read from my perspective. Now I want to hear yours. Fellow readers of TMP, what did you think?
You must have loved the book.
…how could you not.
