Patrick:
My pick this week is a new comic from a familiar creator that we have spoken about on the podcast. “Mercury Heat” #1 from Avatar Press Inc, written by Keiron Gillen and art by Omar Francia is out today. Gillen you know from books like cult classic ‘Phonogram’ and the smash hit ‘The Wicked + The Divine’ both from Image comics. We’ve talked on the podcast about the excellent character building and dialogue he brings to Marvel books as well, particularly (my favorite) his run on ‘Young Avengers’. So it was really his name that made me pick this issue off the rack today (along with some great cover art) as I missed the preview of this book on Free Comic book Day back in May. Spoiler for this review: I am glad I did.
This book is an interesting mash-up of just some of the coolest genres out there, from sc-fi, to cyberpunk, with shades of hard-broiled detective thrown in. It follows a freelance police officer, or the eponymous ‘Heat’ in the title, Luiza. She finds herself in orbit around Mercury, in a kind of frontier of space-born corporate industrial expansion, reminiscent of the wild west, think the movie “Alien” maybe. I fully expect someone to be revealed as an evil corporate cyborg at some point. In this issue we find out that she has what it takes to take on the rough an tumble underbelly of Mercury.
So, when you open this book up you are first struck with how great Francia’s art is, and how well fitted for this title. This guy is extremely talented, and his work on other sci-fi titles like ‘Mass Effect’ and ‘Star Wars Legacy’ has been top notch. Here in “Mercury Heat’ he presents a world that is beautifully crafted to look like a gritty hard sci-fi universe. I had some reservations with some layout and lettering in the front of the book, but his character design and action panels are stellar, and I can’t wait to see more of it. There are a lot of interestingly drawn pieces of technology here, and it all looks great.
One of my favorite parts of this book was Gillen’s explanation of his influences in the letters section at the end. He explains how long this story has been on his mind (over 7 years) and it really reinforced how much he enjoyed the project. I always find stuff like that fun to read, especially if you can go back and spot where the influences are in the book itself. Gillen’s writing is really great here, with a tight introduction to a fairly obtuse world that is fairly similar to us, but still pretty foreign. You get dropped right in the middle of Mercury along with Luiza, and Gillen doesn’t hold your hand which makes me happy. For the best sci-fi, I don’t need to understand how the spaceships fly, or the mixture of fuel in the rockets, but a general sense of the social structure, the technology level and things of that nature help the reader. I enjoyed getting from context just how things operate in this world, and getting to the action of policing in the far reaches of space.
In this book we have a great representation of a transhumanist cyberpunk world, making Luiza a suped-up version of Gibson’s character Molly. I am an absolute sucker for everything Cyberpunk, and mixing in the awesome setting and Francia’s great art this is a book that won’t have to wait to make it to the top of my Buy Pile each month. “Mercury Heat” is on shelves today.
Myles:
IDW, in their infinite, majestic wisdom, saw fit to release a comic with a name that guaranteed immediate pick-up without a second’s hesitation: Godzilla in Hell #1. That’s right, the King of Monsters traverses to the Hell in this new mini-series written and drawn by James Stokoe.
Going in, you should know a few things. There’s no narrative descriptions explaining the plot. There is no dialogue, as Big G believes actions are louder than words. Everything falls on Stokoe’s fantastic pencils for one purpose and one purpose only: to straight-up WRECK the underworld.
The beginning sees Godzilla falling into Hell. How did he get there? Did he die or just stumble across some portal into the nether realm? Don’t know. Don’t care. This is Godzilla in Hell. That’s what we came to see. The how and why don’t matter.
Perhaps one of my favorite visuals in comics in the last decade comes in a scene where Godzilla has just arrived in Hell. Towering in front of G is the classic phrase: “Abandon all hope, ye who enter?” Hell does not impress Godzilla. Sniffing in defiance, he rears his head back and decimates Dante’s words with his atomic breath, continuing forward unimpressed.
Godzilla in Hell made me giggle with glee. As a huge fan of kaiju films, Godzilla, especially, and outlandish concepts like sticking them in Hell. I loved every monster-filled moment of this book. If you’re a fan of Godzilla or you’re just looking for an extremely fun read, Godzilla in Hell #1 is the way to go.
Drew:
Bro, it’s finally here bro. Been long wait bro but worth it? Yeah bro, worth it. This week marks the release of issue 22 of Matt Fraction and David Aja’s smash hit Hawkeye. It also marks the finale of this amazing book, that while it suffered from delays left and right, left an indelible mark on the comics industry with its fantastic visual style and clever writing.
Honestly the hardest part about reading this book is not remembering exactly what was happening in the last issues. I don’t want to make this review about the wait, but the last issue released was in February, and the one before that September. This is going to prompt a re-read of the whole series, I am very okay with this. Though Aja hasn’t drawn every issue of the series, he’s here in full force with all of the purple and gray and pizza dogs that come with this series. This book reaffirms my love of the color purple, honestly. What really surprises me most about the issue is how little dialogue there is. Most of the action is told through the art on the page along with little “how to” diagrams here and there. They’ve done issues like this before, the one from Lucky the pizza dog’s perspective comes to mind, but it’s really nice to see it in the middle of the most knock down drag out fight in the book.
Finales also bring back thoughts of the entire run of the story, and the team has tons of references and in jokes to moments all throughout the book. Even the super old tracksuit dracula makes an appearance. This is something that can be overdone in media, sitcom finales can be some of the worst offenders, but there’s a subtlety to them here that makes you smile. I’d honestly be interested to know the sales numbers of purple Converse All Stars after the debut of this book a few years ago. I’m now even more interested in whether Asics will make Hawkeye versions of their shoes now too. I wear Asics. I could get Hawkeye shoes! I should get Hawkeye shoes.
We already know a little about what our characters are up to next, thanks to the new Jeff Lemire run being 3 issues in already, but it’s really great to finally have the end of this story we’ve been loving for years. Bro is great book bro! Bro you should read! Bro, been listening, joke always comes back in the end.