The Manhattan Projects (2012), Volume 1

Starred review from December 10, 2012
This is not the Manhattan Project you read about in school. A secret plan to defend America with terrifying super weapons, a multi-personality psychotic Oppenheimer, a robotic-armed Wernher von Braun, and a galaxy full of hostile aliens are just a small part of the Hickman and Pitarra's alternate world. The story could easily veer into bland World War II fan fiction, but instead Hickman and Pitarra gleefully transform the historical figures behind the atom bomb into a collection of anti-heroes bent on using every dirty trick in the book to save America and the World from a myriad of evils. The plot jumps through this alternate timeline, shifting gears abruptly, but entertaining throughout. As the focus moves from battling Nazis to battling belligerent space empiresâand with the Americans wielding stranger and more sinister powersâthe line between good and evil gets vaguer, and who's on who's side becomes a more difficult question. The art's surreal combination of caricatures of famous dead men with unbelievable weapons battling incredible enemies is eye-catching and incredibly entertaining. The Manhattan Projects team's actions echo the coups and wars of the US in the immediate post-World War II world, and it's unclear at times whether they're making things better or worse.