| Comic Review | Paul Milligan |
Manifest Eternity #1
Writer: Scott Lobdell
Artist: Dustin Nguyen
Letters: Jared K. Fletcher
After
centuries of galactic warfare the hostilities have finally
ended and the peoples of the universe are united in peace.
To signify the occasion the greatest warship in the fleet,
the Deathnaught, is being retired from service. But before
the ship can even begin to make its way home it is attacked
by a deadly new enemy, a magical race from another
dimension.
I’m not the biggest fan of Scott Lobdell, and haven’t been
since the mid-nineties. More often than not I’ve completely
ignored the comics written by him. So when I pulled this
book out of the stack of previews and decided to review it I
was almost certain that my review would be a negative one.
Imagine my surprise then when I found that I not only
enjoyed reading it but also couldn’t wait to read the next
one! This is actually one of the best pure sci-fi comics I
have read in ages.
Where most comics these days seem to spend forever setting
things up this book throws you right in, introducing the
world and its characters with a quick and entertaining
history lesson that blends easily with the rest of the
story. From there you are thrown right into the thick of
things when, just as the universe is on the brink of a
lasting peace, a magic based empire from another realm
attacks, kicking off a brand new intergalactic war. From
there it was the unique take on the sci-fi epic, clashing
fantasy elements with cutting edge science fiction that
really excited me. Once I saw the singing troll turn aliens
into rock and smash them to pieces I was hooked.
Of course, the art by Dustin Nguyen certainly didn’t hurt
things. He’s really cut loose on this book taking complete
charge of just about all aspects of the art. It reminds me
of Pascal Ferry’s more recent work, kicked up to the next
level. The action is exciting, the storytelling is easy to
follow and the character and environmental designs are top
notch. This is easily the best work I’ve seen from the
Nguyen yet.
So yeah, I am genuinely intrigued and that surprises the
heck out of me. I can’t wait to see where this series goes
and I really hope it will be able to keep up this level of
quality as it continues. I feel I must offer my apologies to
Scott Lobdell for judging him so harshly in the past. I’m
not usually so glad to be proven so wrong about something.
Special thanks go out to Jeremy Shorr, owner of
Titan Comics for allowing us to use his advance
preview books for review purposes.
