Welcome to our Summer Comics Binge of “The Manhattan Projects” by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra. I’ve read work by both creators before, namely Hickman’s X title relaunch and half of “East of West” (that’s on hold until I finish “The Manhattan Projects”), and Pitarra’s short-lived “Leviathan.” I’ll be reviewing a volume of the series every week. Be warned, following a spoiler-reduced introductory review of the first volume, this week’s review is more heavy-handed with spoilers.
The Manhattan Projects Vol. 2Cover by Nick Pitarra
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Illustrated by Nick Pitarra (#6-9) and Ryan Browne (#10)
Colored by Jordie Bellaire
Lettered by Rus Wooton
Reviewed by Luke CorneliusCollects The Manhattan Projects 6-10!
The second amazing volume of the SCIENCE, BAD book of the new millennium. The battle for global supremacy is underway and the bad men of the Manhattan Projects will only accept one outcome: World domination
Collecting the coolest new series of the year into one super science package.
Wow. If last week’s volume wasn’t crazy enough for you, I’d hope that this week’s is, because if you can think of it, it’s probably in the volume somewhere.
Last week I left off my review wondering about the morality of the characters and whether or not they would change over the course of the series, particularly if a new authority was established. As it turns out, no. If anything, after this volume, the characters are well and truly irredeemable. They plan to rebel against their governments to work on their space endeavours and, if the governments don’t like it, well, there’s twenty (20!) atomic bombs waiting to be deployed. The number of casualties that could be accumulated alongside the scientific endeavour is completely ignored. Of course, this comic is a satire, and it’s these completely over the top and bombastic story elements that makes it work so well, but, crikey, the opening page of the volumes don’t lie, do they? – Science. Bad.
With this in mind, when reading volume 2, I wasn’t sure who I was meant to be rooting for. While the scientists are our protagonists, they aren’t heroes so it feels wrong to truly support them. Even when we’re introduced to the Illuminati (yes, that’s right, they are part of the book too), I felt reluctant to wholeheartedly side with the scientists. The Illuminati are a group that are even more controlling and power-hungry than our protagonists and so I wasn’t going to root for them, but the alternative isn’t much better. Furthermore, the frequent enslavement of Helmutt in issue #6 seemed to give the series its first somewhat sympathetic cast member but, again, he is/was a Nazi. There’s a repeated shot of Helmutt’s eyes beneath his glasses, while his skin is colored blue, that’s very reminiscent of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg’s watchful eyes in The Great Gatsby. Being a literature graduate, I can’t help but feel this serves to illustrate Hickman’s invitation to us to judge these characters and the developments in science (fiction or nonfiction), but to do so from a distance. Hickman wants us to be more passive in participating in the series; I think we can judge these characters for their actions, but equally, you can just sit back and enjoy this completely bonkers narrative.
With the question of morality aside for now, in this volume we see the endeavor to conquer space begin in earnest. The Soviet space program is advancing quickly, in the retro futuristic Star City, populated with what I can only describe as potato-robots. As to be expected, Pitarra’s designs bring these ideas to life and embrace the ludicrousy of the series so comfortably. For the scenes inside the potato-robot factory, there’s a multitude of camera angles which keep the scene dynamic, but also places us inside the tanks filled with squid-like potato things to showcase their strangeness and present the power dynamics between Helmutt and the Soviet Colonel. Bellaire’s color palette changes for the Soviet scenes giving everything a dusty appearance as though the red from the flag was overlaid as a filter, again, keeping things fresh, but also making the Soviet scenes clearly identifiable.
Continued belowFor me, not all of the humor works in this volume, though, largely due to the moral complications that I got caught up in, but, even then there are some huge laugh-out-loud moments, particularly in issue #7 when President Truman, having been informed of the scientist’s rebellious intentions, has to cancel his orgy. He then quickly questions how a President is supposed to sexually perform with his authority undermined. I think this moment works so well because in a series filled with bonkers sci-fi ideas undercutting the real scientific morality, this scene is completely unexpected. Likewise, when Enrico Fermi transforms into a huge spider-monster to fight off some soldiers, the thin horizontal panels make everything happen extremely quickly so it’s presented to us as something we just have to accept, and it works brilliantly. Two volumes into the series, with anything and everything happening so unexpectedly, the only thing you can do is sit back, laugh, and just think, “Of course, that’s happened. Why wouldn’t that happen?”
While it was established in the first volume that the scientists had established a network of the Torii gates and were struggling to keep powered, I wondered if they would be a means to an end in the grand scheme of things. Wrong! Hickman weaves them into the second volume as a crucial part of the scientist’s plans to splinter from the governments, and the problem of powering them is resolved too. Hickman’s willingness to explore these ‘minor’ concepts is great because it likely means that in the future, the sudden moments, such as that unexpected transformation by Fermi, will be contextualized.
For the final issue of the volume, Ryan Browne fills in for Pitarra and does a good job; there’s a similarity in their lines that the change in artist won’t be instantly clear. Browne, whether naturally, or purposefully, seems to mimic Pitarra’s panelwork too, so this issue sits comfortably amongst the others. Rus Wooton’s lettering really stood out in this issue too. For the series so far, I’ve found little to dislike about his work, but in this final issue, the balloons are colored blue and red depending on the speaker, and this emphasizes the struggle between the Oppenheimer personalities. Robert Oppenheimer is blue, with his word balloons a faint blue that almost blends seamlessly into the grey background of Joseph’s mind. Robert seems to hold more power in Joseph’s mind than you’d expect and the coloring highlights this, and is suggestive of the inevitable collapse of the Infinite Oppenheimers to come.
Overall, the second volume of “The Manhattan Projects” continues in much the same vein as the first, with big and zany ideas in all directions, being brought to life by a great creative team.
