The Manhattan Projects #7

Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Nick Pitarra

Jonathan Hickman spent the first six issues of this series introducing the characters, and establishing just how wonderful and weird his universe was.  Now, he's gotten all the groundwork laid out, and it's time to start moving this book into high gear.

The American Manhattan Projects, supposedly under the control of General Leslie Groves (although it looks more like Nazi scientist Wernher Von Braun is calling the shots) enter into secret talks with their counterparts from the Soviet Star City program.  The basis of these talks?  They want to work independently of their governments to explore new options, after the Americans' recent interaction with alien lifeforms.

As much as I've loved this comic, I've been unable to predict where Hickman was taking things; now, I have a good sense of what is going to happen in this title, as the two groups settle into an uneasy alliance, while earning the enmity of President Truman (whose orgy is interrupted by the news of what the Projects are up to).

This is a truly wonderful comic.  Hickman has done a great number of strange and twisted things to the actual historical figures involved in the American atomic weapons project (this issue, we get to see just how alien Enrico Fermi really is), but has also imbued the book with some humanity, especially through the character of Helmutt Gröttrup, a German scientist who has been prisoner of the Soviets for years.

Nick Pitarra is more than up for any crazy idea that Hickman throws at him, and his art just keeps getting better and better.  This book is incredibly unique, and never boring.