Name: The Manhattan Projects
ISBN: 9781607066088

Jonathan Hickman

Nick Pitarra

The eccentric scientists of the Manhattan Project, using the building of the atomic bomb as a front, engage in unusual and sinister experiments that could affect the future of the world.

Science bad. 1

The Manhattan Projects

Kerry Gibbons

Okay, so I did not like this comic. If someone told me the basic premise, I'd be intrigued and probably want to read it, but not if they mentioned how Dr Oppenheimer is actually (view spoiler)[two people: himself and an evil twin who murdered him and ate his brains to gain his knowledge (hide spoiler)] or that (view spoiler)[trans-planetary (and inter-planetary) gateways and cyber zombie samurais were major plot points (hide spoiler)].

The artwork was okay but still not really my style. I will not be picking up volume 2.

Bryan Alexander

A delightful alternate history romp, Manhattan Projects imagines America's WWII crash research program as a mad science endeavor. Right off the bat we learn that the atom bomb is just one project from the portfolio. Instead the MP's main focus is on teleportation, fighting robot armies, creating technology through sheer imagination, and more: (view spoiler)[building monoliths to contact parallel universes, fighting with aliens (hide spoiler)]... all in the first volume. Hence the title's plural. 

Moreover, historical characters become warped in all kinds of ways. General Groves is a power-mad warrior. Harry Daghlian has been irradiated by the Demon Core, as in our reality, but this has made him nearly immortal in the MF universe, and turned his head into a floating, fiery skull. Richard Feymann is goofy and good as ever, pretty much the team's moral center. Werner von Braun shows up, sporting a gigantic robot arm. Oppenheimer and Einstein... (view spoiler)[is actually his own twin brother, a cannibal and brain-eater. Einstein has been replaced by an evil doppelganger from another universe. (hide spoiler)]

I must mention the book's rapid pace. Each issue leaps into action, racing from idea to idea at top speed. Plots explode, collapse, and morph into something new with the speed of sketch comedy. 

The referential universe of MP is also entertaining. The red/blue art dynamic suggests the underrated tv show Fringe. The rapid change of main idea from issue to issue recalls the great Warren Ellis graphic novel Planetary, as do some of the topics.

The art took me a little while to appreciate. It seems to relish human deformity at first, which makes sense once the characters unfold. Panels with obsessive details remind me of Geoff Darrow, while the gleaming fantasy images suggest Frank Quitely.

This is only the first book, but I hanker for the rest.

The Manhattan Projects Science bad. 1