THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS #6

Review by: TheNextChampion

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Avg Rating: 4.5
 
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Story by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Nick Pitarra
Colors by Jordie Bellaire

Size: 0 pages
Price: 3.50

Well it took six months but it has finally happened: Manhattan Projects is not my Pick of the Week. It’s a very strange feeling once I realized what my pick was. This series has, and still is, amazingly fun and for the longest time I couldn’t think it could NOT be my Pick. But no, this issue isn’t my pick. It’s a 5 star comic though so why on Earth isn’t it my pick?

The tone is everything with this book. Yes there’s a lot of violent shit going down but Jonathan Hickman adds so much fun to the tone it’s hard to notice how violent it is. In this issue it is bleak as anything and I guess it fits considering the subject. Clearly we are just getting introduced to our Soviet friends for this title and everything BUT fun describes their scientists. Now even if the tone is a bit bleaker then the previous five issues, I’m not saying it’s a bad issue. Everything here is a blast to read and we do get some of that Hickman charm throughout the issue. Of course top Russian officials are heads in a jar and of course they have their own super city. So even if this isn’t a ‘rock and rolling’ read as the previous issues were, it is still a great issue from beginning to end and I can’t lower a score because of change in tone.

Even with a change in tone, Nick Pitarra clearly doesn’t give a shit. I mean, have you looked at his art in this issue? Good lord it’s amazing what he brings to the table with series. Yes, Hickman’s imagination is a key selling point for this series. But this series would never be half of what it is if Hickman never discovered Pitarra. Mix some Geoff Darrow and Seth Fisher and you get an idea on what his style is. But he brings his own style to this series with some incredible detail. Whether it’s a castle coming down or adding a million Oppenheimer’s into a panel; Pitarra can do whatever Hickman’s asks him and just executes it perfectly. I swear if he ever left this book I would probably drop it. I can’t imagine loving this series as much as I do if someone else was drawing it.

This is still a 5 star issue and I still love this series to death. But with the change in tone to being bleak as hell, it’s hard to find the wacky fun from the previous issues. I guess that’s the only explanation why this isn’t my personal Pick of the Week. Still, if you want to see just why Manhattan Projects may be the best series of 2012; this is another example why.

Story: 5 - Excellent
Art: 5 - Excellent

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