REVIEW: The Manhattan Projects #1

Posted on 03/07/12 at 1:08 PM in Articles, Reviews by Paul Montgomery

"Infinite Oppenheimers"

The Manhattan Projects #1

Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Nick Pitarra
Color by Cris Peter
Letters by Rus Wooton

$3.50/Color/32 pages

Image Comics

A single letter can change everything.

And we’re not talking about that ill-conceived missive from McEwan’s Atonement. Though that’s the same idea. No, we’re talking about one alphabetic character. Not just a dependent granule of a larger word, but an algebraic signifier. Not just phonics, but physics.

Misplaced, a letter can alter a complex equation, rendering a day’s work, weeks of work, a life’s work, null. A single letter might represent a solitary molecule, an atom, the slightest smudge of reality. Or it can mean whole subsets of time and space. It can mean everything. When that letter is S, it turns singularity to plurality. It turns an isolated incident into, well, potentially limitless possibility. Take that same S away and maybe it’s as simple as division or subtraction. Then again, maybe it isn’t.

In Jonathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra’s latest mind-bending, creator-owned tale, the addition of one little S does change everything. We know about the Trinity tests and mushroom clouds. We know of the paralysis suffered by clocks. We know of Leslie Groves, the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Manhattan Project, a braintrust responsible for weaponizing atomic energies. Even that effort was inspired by a letter, Einstein–Szilárd letter, though that one was a document. When we hear or see that name, “The Manhattan Project,” we think of scientific endeavor. Probably we think about folly and regret. Certainly we think about death and annihilation. Then Hickman makes a slight alteration and The Manhattan Projects conjures up a whole host of possibilities. That’s what alternate history does. Even more than fiction from scratch, alternate history sends the needle of our internal compass whirling. Our orbit shifts just slightly and all that was certain isn’t so certain any more.

So, expand out from that kernel. More than one Manhattan Project? More than one objective? What is the endgame? More importantly, what else is different about this version of that sad tale of endeavor and fear and malice?

Oppenheimer remains at the center of events. We know the brilliant physicist Robert. Hickman introduces us to a younger brother. Not Frank, another physicist, but someone more immediate. Joseph Oppenheimer is Robert’s twin, his younger counterpart. They straddle one midnight, but it’s more than a few minutes that separate them as individuals. Joseph didn’t have it quite so good as Robert when it came to scholarship or social niceties. Joseph did some very bad things and landed in an institution. It’s a measure of the times that, during a job interview with the MPs’ General Groves, Oppenheimer must distance himself not from Joseph’s murderous proclivities, but his open support for the Community Party.

“I am not my brother.”

Short on time or interest, Groves anoints Oppenheimer to the Projects and takes him on a tour of their vast facility. It’s quickly apparent that this is about much more than a bomb, as we witness a pair of scientists garbed in hazmat suits laboring over a trembling orb of crackling green energies. Groves nonchalantly describes the process as “mining something called pan-dimensional space for the fringe materials we need to build our impossible machines.” Pitarra’s pages ooze with luscious background detail; strange tridents floating in holding tanks, engineers toiling over a partially dismantled saucer vehicle in a vast hanger.

Perhaps the most curious and enticing stop on the tour involves a solitary man in a locked room. German physicist Albert Einstein–or a similarly mustachioed gentleman–sits still and silent in the shadows, his back to the curious Oppenheimer.

“He only gets out when I’m good and damned ready,” Groves growls, never turning back.

There follows a moment where Einstein peers over his shoulder at the departing visitors, a smile of something like defiance on his face. There are far stranger, game-changing revelations to follow, but it just might be the greatest hook. In the very real world, Einstein helped develop the most treacherous technologies known to ours or any other civilization on this planet. But his own regret and a particular photograph emblazoned on t-shirts and coffee mugs in Spencer’s Gifts the world over have softened our image of the man to a cuddly, mousey little mensch. That’s fair, of course. Einstein was no warmonger. But the dissonance here is quite compelling. We don’t know what role this iteration of the physicist will play in this story, whether he’s a noble captive or a sociopathic genius. He could well be feral. But to see him with that glimmer of mischief and rebellion is a particularly exciting tease.

It should be noted that the tour ends rather violently. The Japanese army stops by, and they have some fringe science at their disposal too.

Sentient origami as a throwaway reference.

A zen-powered “Red Torii” (The iconic entrance gate of a Shinto shrine) summoned by Death Buddhists

And of course, mechanical samurai.

Here, Oppenheimer comes into his own, and we as readers realize that this is Hickman unleashed. Big, bold concepts. Thoughtful science. Exceptional mad science too. Some of these moves are broad, with the abandon of the most frenetic Saturday morning cartoon. But it’s all tethered to a solid understanding of both history, science and story. No matter how crazy things get, Hickman’s dramatic authority and attention to detail are a constant, grounding presence. For his part, Pitarra counters Hickman’s sometimes clinical voice with unkempt, organic flair. Take Groves, a big, bulky presence whose character might just be defined by the greasy, uneven spikes of his hair. Were Frank Quitely to go a little more expressive and grungy than usual, it’d look a lot like this. Mad science comics ought to look like one button is in the wrong hole and the short end of the necktie is not quite inconspicuous. That’s very much the case here, making for a perfect pairing of writer and artist.

There’s more to be revealed even in just this issue of The Manhattan Projects. You might suspect a prominent twist in this installment before the halfway point, but keep going. Hickman actually concocted something far more bizarre. If you’re anything like this reader, you’ll find yourself cackling. Diabolically.

The Manhattan Projects is off to a tremendous start, one of the big concept author’s strongest, most inventive opening chapters. Nothing is certain. Except infinite possibility.

Story: 5/ Art: 4.5 / Overall: 5

(Out of 5 Stars)

The Manhattan Projects #1 is on shelves today.

REVIEW: The Manhattan Projects #1

The Manhattan Projects #1

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