Jonathan-Hickman

Last time we considered Hickman’s use of the themes of love, family, and fatherhood as well as introducing the world, plot, and art. The title of this third trade is “There is No Us” and on the surface, it is about the dissolution of the tenuous peace between the Seven Nations North America. But the deeper themes of this volume are that of free will vs predestination and deception. The first two issues of this volume overlap with the twelve issues I examined last time, but I will include their plot elements as I provide a quick overview of the plot. Xiaolian calls a conference of the Seven Nations at the neutral territory of Armistice. Finally in a position of power, she seeks revenge on The Chosen for kidnapping the son she had with Death. As I mentioned before, many of the Seven Nations are not run by The Chosen (although they hold positions of power) and so they attempt to avert war. A situation I will detail momentarily leads to Xiaolian getting the war she wants. The Ranger finally finds his target and kills Cheveyo. After a confrontation with Death, he agrees to take Death to the facility housing The Beast (his son). The Three Horesemen decide they’re sick of following along with The Word and will go kill The Beast. They leave Ezra in a crumbling Armistice building and head to the facility housing The Beast. As I mentioned last time, The Beast has been plotting his escape with his computing device. He defeats the Conquest and affirms his dominance. He renames himself Babylon, names his computer Balloon and the book ends on a huge “OH SHIT” moment.

Last week we explored the major themes in Jonathan Hickman’s East of West. This week we continue with another Hickman series, The Manhattan Projects, and this time the main theme is deception. Hickman does also include his usual themes of hubris, love, and family relationships (particularly the paternal), but deception is the engine that drives this story. Last week I made the superficial comparison between East of West and The Manhattan Projects in that they both deal with alternate histories. The main difference at this level is that the former diverges after the Civil War while the latter diverges during World War II. But that’s where the similarities end. East of West is self-serious and the pencils and colors reflect that seriousness. The Manhattan Projects is, in a way, dark slapstick and the caricature pencils that mirror some of the Underground Comix looks of the 70s and 80s along with a light palette reflects the comedy. Nick Pitarra, on pencil and ink duties, does a wonderful job setting the tone with all the little details in his work. Last week, I compared East of West to Kill Bill. The Manhattan Projects is like Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove. In fact, the comparison is spot on (including an ex-Nazi with a mechanical arm) - if you liked the tone of Dr Strangelove you’ll enjoy The Manhattan Projects. (And in issue #20 there’s a reference to Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey) In the first scene General Leslie Grove’s office is littered with weapons everywhere. His desk even has bullet holes and he wears a grenade on his chest

Most writers have themes they return to time and again, each time looking at a different way. This also is true of many of the most lauded comic book writers. Alan Moore is fond of using public domain characters and exploring politics and the deconstruction and reconstruction of super hero tropes. When working with established characters, Grant Morrison can’t seem to get enough joy out of mining a character’s past continuity to find new ways of making what is often a discarded, silly part of the Golden or Silver Age canon bring new light and understanding to a character. Morrison also likes to explore the metaphysical, leading to dense comic writing that can be hard to get through, but rewarding if you get all the references and points he’s making. He also likes to look at the future consequences of today’s actions, most famously during his runs on New X-Men and Batman. Mark Waid has become the master of exploring the consequences of lies and the truths we withhold from each other. His heroes have secrets even from each other and that can lead to dire consequences. Finally, we have Jonathan Hickman who seems to have two primary themes that run through his work. The first is about the role of fathers and the effects of having/not having a father and having/not having a family. He has explored this in more than one comic, but it is the central theme of his excellent run on Fantastic Four and FF. I would love to see another writer run with the fact that Hickman has Valeria choose Dr Doom as her father figure. Hickman also enjoys exploring how a cabal of very intelligent people can radically change the world. This was a minor theme during his run on Fantastic Four, but it is a central theme in S.H.I.E.L.D., The New Avengers, The Manhattan Projects and East of West. The Manhattan Projects, which we’ve covered before in the old challenge format of this site (and a commentary will appear next week), is a world in which the development of the atomic bomb was the least important and least radical thing being done by the group of scientists in the south west of the United States. Things continue to spiral into a radically different version of history as the scientists discover space travel, teleportation, and AI. East of West is starts off with normal history and then, during the American Civil War, a meteor strikes Earth. Control of the USA splits into seven nations - Union, Confederacy, Texas, Chinese (PRA), Native American nations (The Endless Nation), African American (The Kingdom), and I’m slightly unclear if Armistice is considered the seventh. A cabal of leaders - mostly the leaders of the Seven Nations at the time of the armistice - also write The Message. The Message is a Revelation-type prophecy for bringing about the Apocalypse. For some reason the cabal sees this as a desirable thing

Age of Ultron is barely over, but Marvel is already rolling out Infinity, which is the latest major event from the publisher. Events can be a divisive topic for a lot of comic fans, but I tend to enjoy them as long as they’re telling stories that have been properly set up and they don’t derail other stories in progress. That was my biggest issue with Age of Ultron–it felt like it didn’t matter and was an unnecessary hiatus from other, better stories. There were a lot of other issues, but Kari has already covered most of them in her article Comic Events and Consumer Affairs: Age of Ultron, so I’ll move on to discuss Infinity, which I actually have high hopes for. ...

Peter Panzerfaust #10 Peter Panzerfaust #10 is getting a second printing. I read the first issue and I really liked it, but didn’t have the budget to get into the story at the time. The neat thing is that this issue sold out despite there being twice as many #10s ordered as there were #9s. Reprints don’t matter if you’re reading comics digitally, but if you like to hold you comics, go to your comic shop next week (17 April) to get the second printing of issue #10. Or, if you prefer trades, it’ll be available in the second trade on 15 May. ...

[caption id=“attachment_553” align=“alignleft” width=“195” caption=“The Manhattan Projects #2”] [/caption] Eric’s Book Eric: Thanks to Dan, I’ve become a huge Jonathan Hickman fan. It started with you, Dan, lending me the Fantastic Four trades that lead into FF. This made me appreciate the current Fantastic Four/Future Foudnation storylines in a way that I wouldn’t have otherwise. In fact, I might even had dropped FF without that context. Then you selected SHIELD Vol 2 #4 for the Week 7 POW and I got a sense of Hickman’s main themes. Other than father figures, he has a huge interest in timelines, alternate dimensions, and other hard science fiction . While F4 has always been Marvel’s sci-fi book, Hickman has really made the focus sci-fi instead of the usual comic book fare. ...

[caption id=“attachment_535” align=“alignleft” width=“194” caption=“FF 16”] [/caption] Eric’s Book Eric: Well, there’s been a bit of a break while I was adjusting to being a father and didn’t really have time to read my comics in the week in which they came out. But we’re back! And we have another brawl between two books from the House of Ideas. This week I thought for a long while about picking Avengers vs X-Men #0 because of Dan’s hatred for 616 X-Men. Also, I wanted Dan to see what a colossal a-hole Vision was to Scarlett Witch. Even Tony Stark was like, “Bro!” But I ended up going with my true favorite comic of the week and FF makes yet another appearance on this site. I think my favorite thing about this issue was the fact that it’s told from Valeria’s perspective and Hickman does a perfect job making her both a 3 year old and a genius. ...

Sorry again for the late POW! [caption id=“attachment_336” align=“alignleft” width=“195” caption=“Batwoman #4”] [/caption] Eric’s Book Eric: In an interesting reversal I have decided to choose Batwoman #4 for my Comic POW! entry this week. While I haven’t hated Batwoman, it hadn’t really spoken to me that much for the first three issues. This issue, however, had everything. A powerful story, beautiful art (which the series has had since the beginning) and a shocking ending. Dan, I know you’ve been a huge fan of Batwoman - one of the few Bat-titles you actually enjoy. What’d you think of this issue? ...

Comic POW! evolved from our Friday Morning conversations as Dan and I discussed the week’s comics. After a few weeks I came to realize that Dan and I take away very different things from comics. Dan tends to enjoy comics for the art and metaphor and he prefers creator owned comics. I tend to emphasis the story and how it relates to the wider continuity. I’m a lifelong Marvel fan and newly into DC. So I decided to share that weekly conversation with you guys. Every week we’ll each select a new issue and see if we can convince the other person the comic we chose deserves to be called the best comic of that week. Sometimes it’ll be easy. Other times it might be an epic battle. We also have some special battles planned for the future. Just a quick note, in order for the battles to get into the details of a particular issue, there will be spoilers! That’s part of the reason why we chose to do this on Fridays instead of Wednesdays. Well, join me after the jump, and let’s get started!