With the possible exception of the overwhelming success (both artistic and popular) of The Avengers movie, the biggest comics story this year has actually been a batch of smaller stories. Between DC Comics' contentious decision to release prequels to Watchmen and the ongoing lawsuits by the heirs of Jack Kirby and the creators of Superman against Marvel and DC respectively, the treatment of comics creators by "the Big Two" has definitely put a negative light on a form of entertainment intended to celebrate justice and good. On a more positive note, it's also drawn attention to creator-owned comics titles.
The biggest player in this area, Image Comics, turns 20 this year and got a nice birthday present in the form of an article in the New York Times. Among the topics touched on was creators who write DC's and Marvel's characters on a work-for-hire basis while creating their own (and owned) titles for Image. While the article gave a much-deserved nod to the series Fatale, by Captain America writer Ed Brubaker, I was disappointed that another key Marvel writer's series wasn't mentioned.
Writer Jonathan Hickman has been writing The Fantastic Four the last couple years. As good as some of those stories have been, they pale in comparison to his original series The Manhattan Projects, a collaboration with up-and-coming artist Nick Pitarra.
As the title suggests, the series is set in the 1940s around the Manhattan Project with a cast of characters that includes Robert Openheimer, Albert Einstein and Harry Truman. However, despite the presence of familiar people and and events, both the project and those surrounding it are far removed from history as we know it. The series is also far removed from the standard alternate-history approach. Put another way, Hickman is not dealing in what-ifs but rather WTFs.
It's hard to offer details without spoiling the story, but a telling keyword is "multiple". The scientists involved are engaged in multiple projects beyond the atomic bomb, we encounter multiple US presidents and Doctor Openheimer has multiple personalities for good measure. Another key multiple can be found in issue #4, but again I don't want to spoil anything. The key here is that these multiples add up to something tremendously (some would say mind-blowingly) good.
It's a dicey proposition to compare any series, especially one that's only five issues in, to one of comics' landmark series, but this comic bears genuine comparisons to Watchmen. Though Pitarra's art is a very different style to Dave Gibbons' work on Watchmen, it certainly fits the tone of the story. As for the story itself, its intersecting plot threads traversing time, place and mental space may be even more complex than the parallel structure Alan Moore deployed on Watchmen.
Obviously, time will tell if that comparison holds true or is just my enthusiasm running away with me. I only hope that Hickman's upcoming Avengers title for Marvel won't mess with the release of The Manhattan Projects. I'm well and truly hooked and can't wait to see what happens next in this version of the past.
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