Comics Review: The Manhattan Projects

I finished the first tradeback of The Manhattan Projects recently and I am a little baffled about where to begin because there is so much going on. One of the reasons I think it is hard to talk about is that there does not seem to be a specific story being told. It feels more like a glimpse to an alternate history of the Manhattan Project and following the crazy antics of the various geniuses involved. There are a lot of crazy antics going on and all sorts of weird science fiction scenarios happening all at once. Each of the scientists in The Manhattan Projects seems to have their own expertise and their own crazy ideas some of them more outrageous than the last.

Part of the reason that this comic is so hard to describe is there is so much going on and in some ways you might need to discover a lot of it for yourself. The quick version is that I am enjoying the comic and it definitely deals in big ideas that make you think. I would definitely recommend it to people although I will warn it is different than other comics you might read. (Spoilers for The Manhattan Projects after the jump)

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Jonathan Hickman and the Illuminati

I’ve promised this post, and it’s time to deliver. I’ve talked about Jonathan Hickman’s comics a lot, here’s a quick list of main posts:

• New Avengers
• Avengers
• Prelude, Infinity, and After
• Myth and Science on Sourcerer

There’s one theme that I keep seeing between all of his comics I’ve read so far. And one theme that has led to my Hickman posts being some of the most popular I have written here on Comparative Geeks. The Illuminati.

This image I think comes up on Google if you search right.

Something about this theme – about the men of power who secretly run the world – is appealing to Hickman. It makes them a villain that can be defeated, makes the world something that – through a contest of will – can be changed. It makes for great story-telling; but does it tell us anything about the Illuminati themselves? Let me work through the comics and consider!

New Post Ideas – Reading Reactions

So this is not a normal post because it is more of a commitment to a new post idea that I have been mulling over for a while. I have been really enjoying the LitFlix that we do because I find it fascinating to look at how a book is translated into a movie. At the same time I feel like the only books I am reading lately are the LitFlix, which means that my back log is piling up higher and higher. So I have decided that I am going to try and read one non-LitFlix book a month for the next year. A year is a good amount of time to see if something works and then re-evaluate so I will do it for a year and see how it goes.

The other thing that I want to do is try and read Volume 1 or the first 5 or 6 comics of a series. I really enjoyed reading Locke and Key and Saga. There are a lot more comics that I would like to read and I am hoping this will help me try out a bunch of different options and then share my thoughts with others.

A to Z Reaction and All The Things in April!

Last week we finished up the April A to Z blogging challenge, with 26 Character Studies! We hope you enjoyed them; we certainly had a good time writing them. Welcome to all our new followers from the challenge, and thank you to everyone who stopped by and were reading and commenting!

Of course, what this also means is we have a whole month of things that have been happening that we have left pretty much untouched. We did a post for International TableTop Day, but otherwise it was the challenge. 

And then we went on a weekend trip to Seattle, to visit our friends and occasional guest bloggers @Odorunara and @Briantific. They each did a great guest post – Leah on Hannibal, which we now have to watch (sounds pretty good!), and Brian on ESO, in which he has gotten much further than we have and has taught us much of what we know about the game. Thank you again to them, and make sure you read their posts!

So we have a ton we want to talk about and want to catch up on and share with you and we didn’t really know where to start. So, here’s some thoughts on things that have been going on we want to talk about, or will be soon!

All New Marvel Now and Should I Keep Reading?

So, over the course of the blog, I have talked about my growing rediscovery of comics, which has been aided and fueled by the ease of access with mobile apps, and the fact that tablets seem like an almost perfect way to read a comic book. If you don’t believe me, check out a somewhat older comic that should be pretty cheap, like the two-comic Days of Future Past, and see what you think. And try out both the Guided View on and off.

It was an Avengers World… It was the first of many. Cover to Avengers World #1!

I’ve mainly been reading Marvel Comics, and blogging on them, and excited for them. I had such a great backlog of things to catch up on, and there were combined volumes to grab – the digital equivalent of trade paperbacks, and often for better prices. But then I found some comics I like, and then I got caught up on them. And then it’s the waiting game, and the new comics price – new comics tending to run $3-$4 each, with a new slew of titles coming out every Wednesday. But for most titles, only once a month, so the waiting, anticipation, cliffhangers… it gets you continuing to buy the titles as they come out, month over month.

However, Marvel seems to be going through re-branding and re-booting their comics lines AGAIN, something I discussed before has already happened a couple of times in the last few years. I got back into comics just as this last batch of re-boots started, but now as it happens again, while it might be a great time for someone new to come onboard… is it the best for an ongoing reader? For instance, as I was finally finishing reading Dominic Deegan, I noticed a comment in the news at the bottom, about the author going through the transition from the Heroic Age to Marvel Now, and being disappointed with the re-boot and author-swap of his favorite titles. I was like, well, I like where it is now… and then it’s going somewhere else. So consider with me for a moment while I consider my comics reading moving forward!