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, this review does contain spoilers.
Cover by Nick PitarraThe Manhattan Projects Vol. 5
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Illustrated by Nick Pitarra (#22-25) and Ryan Browne (#21)
Colored by Jordie Bellaire
Lettered by Rus Wooton
Reviewed by Luke CorneliusIt’s the fifth volume of the world’s greatest secret science history, THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS. “”The Cold War”” reveals the dark days of the ‘real’ Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of an American President, and the end of the Manhattan Projects-Star City alliance.
Collects THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS #21-25.
After four volumes, we’re here, folks. Outer space. I’ve been waiting since the end of the first volume for a real venture into space and this volume delivers it. After reading volume four last week I was growing increasingly doubtful of seeing any major space endeavours but Hickman flips the script this week and embraces space – not that the solicit for the volume would suggest so.
Ryan Browne is tasked with illustrating the opening issue of the volume, which is centered on Laika. Yep, that’s right, Laika, Yuri’s dog who was last seen coming into contact with a huge fleet of spaceships. We learn that the fleet belongs to the Sionnu, an alien race concerned with understanding everything in the universe and they hold this information in their main vessel, the Library. What ensues is everything I’ve loved about “The Manhattan Projects” so far; a blend of humor and sci-fi brought to life with fantastic designs.
The Sionnu are bizarre looking aliens, a little like an orange alien equivalent of Pan’s Labyrinth‘s Pale Man. Being human-like in body structure, the parallel between their cataloguing project and the exploration and development happening in the Manhattan Projects is undeniable. There are numerous other aliens that are only background details of the issue, but each one is weirder than the last which is testament to Browne’s creativity. Hickman’s decision to transform Laika into a bipedal dog woman via instant-evolution juice is great too, and makes for an interesting future for the character. Before I move onto the rest of the volume, I want to draw attention to Jordie Bellaire’s coloring in this issue. There’s so much vibrancy to this issue of the series, though never so much as to overpower the softer, chunkier lines Browne uses. While it was apparent in Browne’s previous issues that his artwork was strong, I never imagined just how good it would look when Bellaire wasn’t limited to red and blue shades.
After such a strong opening issue of the volume, I was sceptical as to whether it would carry on in quite the same way and, to my surprise, it did. In this issue, Hickman uses Feynman’s narration via Clavis Aurea: The Recorded Feynman to tell the story differently; the other character’s voices are dropped and instead, the facial expressions and body language that Pitarra utilises show each character’s feelings. After twenty issues, it’s great to see different storytelling methods injecting new energy into the book. It allows the story to play out far quicker and the status quo has been dramatically overhauled by the end of the issue (literally – aliens are invading Russia; Daglian is in self-imposed exile; Yuri and Von Braun have ventured into space to find Laika; Groves and Westmoreland have killed the government controllers; and Feynman, Albert, and Albrecht are exploring the multiverse). Furthermore, there’s something very satisfying about reading Feynman’s quotes that have previously featured in isolation for individual chapter breaks as part of a larger passage of narration.
Issues #23 and #24 are concerned primarily with the Earth, although it seems this volume can do no wrong. In these two issues, Hickman retells two well known historical events in “The Manhattan Projects” way, namely the Cuban Missile Crisis and the assassination of JFK. The first is repurposed as a distraction so that the aliens can infiltrate a country closer to the United States and cause further concern for the U.S., while the second is another method of Groves remaining in control of the Manhattan Projects without unwanted oversight. Both issues approach the subject with as much ludicrous energy as you’d expect and it just works so well. With the latter being the subject of numerous conspiracy theories, Hickman harnesses some of them and manages to weave them together staggeringly neatly.
Continued belowThese issues evoked the same response as the first two volumes did, which was to make me pause while reading it and think “Of course, that’s happened. Why wouldn’t that happen?” and it’s the pacing of these issues that allow for this reaction. When we’re given too much time with different characters’ actions, it’s easy to get caught up in the morality of them but here they’re played so fast and loose it doesn’t happen. (That being said, I still felt that the splash page showing JFK’s assassination was unnecessary)
The final issue of the volume, the big #25, absolutely flies by. It’s another frantic issue that covers multiple different threads of the series with all of the members of the Manhattan Projects hurtling down different paths. It set up even more tantalizing story prospects that left me eager to read Volume 6.
What’s interesting come the end of this issue is that this is actually a conclusion to the first big story envisioned for “The Manhattan Projects,” not that it felt like a significant endpoint for any of the threads. After this issue the series went on hiatus with a format change due on its return, with the “sprawling ensemble narrative that moves each individual character’s story incrementally along” being replaced by “tight arcs focusing on a single (or few) characters.” This sounds like a sensible decision given that the characters have spread out over the course of this volume, but, now with the benefit of hindsight, this format change is slightly worrying. Volume 6 is the last of the series and it is unlikely we’ll get to an end point of the series. What’s worse is that there’s no more due in the near future either, despite the last issue being released in February 2016.
Anyway, *ahem* to finish on a high note, this volume was fantastic. “The Manhattan Project” continues to be a zany and ludicrous series, but with the added expansion into space, and the pervasive influence of aliens on Earth, the volume has the creative team firing on all cylinders. By the end of it, the only negative is that there isn’t much more left.
