In the previous issue the scientists of Los Alamos decided they were so powerful they no longer needed to be beholden to their masters. They teamed up with the scientists of Star City to rebuff the Super Powers. In this issue they face the consequences of their actions.
Since the major plot twist happens on the last panel of the first page, I’ll have to dance around the plot of most of the issue. Let’s just say that things go horribly wrong for the teams at both sites and it has to do with the leaders of the world being unhappy at losing control of the world to the scientists.
It was interesting to see how Hickman depicts each of the scientists fighting the threat. The action hews quite well with the personalities he’s given us for the scientists. It is only a shame that most of the pages go to Werner Von Braun. I would have loved to have seen more of Oppenheimer and evil Einstein.
Nick Pitarra’s art continues to be perfect for the book. Most importantly for this issue, Pitarra really nails the facial expressions of the characters. Not only are the two sides at war with each other, but some of them are also insulting each other as they fight and the facial expressions are key to making their interactions realistic. Interestingly, this is the first issue I can remember that doesn’t have a section that’s colored entirely in blue or red. But there is a key palette change that signals when a key change happens.
When this issue ended I was more excited than ever to see where it would go. There are still so many loose ends to tie up and if you throw in what happened in this issue - I think things could be exciting for quite a few months to come.
