Review by Booklist Review
Mad science has long been a prime subject for comics. Hickman's latest series is about as mad as it gets, imagining that the Manhattan Project was really just a front for Oppenheimer, Einstein, Feynman, et al., to get into the really out-there stuff in Los Alamos. And while Japanese teleportation machines (Zen-powered by Death Buddhists), concurrent universes accessed by an enigmatic portal-stone, and shady bargains with warring alien races over humanity's fate are all good and fun, Hickman's strongest play is the way he tinkers with the historical cast members at the dawn of the atomic age. Oppenheimer, in particular, gets a disturbingly twisted portrayal, and who couldn't love giving the Max Headroom treatment to postlife FDR? On the art side, Pitarra's long-legged figures look like they could have just jumped out of a Where's Waldo? book and into a zany, bloody conspiracy theory come to life. Determined to blow as many minds on as many different levels as he can, Hickman is onto something with this series.--Chipman, Ian Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
A psychopathic Oppenheimer, a narcissistic Feynman, a cybog von Braun, and an imprisoned Einstein who's obsessed with a monolith: this is decidedly not your grandfather's Manhattan Project. With artificial intelligence, first contact, and interdimensional travel on the agenda-plus Japanese Death Buddhists to deal with-this group, led by the hard-nosed, hands-on, gung-ho Gen. Leslie Groves, clearly has more on its mind than the delivery of a couple of bombs (though in one particularly chilling episode, they do take care of that little detail). -VERDICT Hickman combines the secret society historical revisionism of his work on Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D. with the affinity for big science he shows in his excellent Harvey Award-nominated Fantastic Four (LJ 9/15/11). But the tone here is more grotesque and outrageous, qualities well matched by Pitarra's artwork and its garish coloring. The result is something like an uneasy meeting of Warren Ellis's Planetary with Layman and Guillory's Chew-wide-scope cosmic invention in a context of horror, gore, and black comedy. Not as successful or essential as Hickman's aforementioned Marvel work, but interesting.-S.R. (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
