The Manhattan Projects #20: Review

The brother Oppenheimers are still at war with each other — even if that war is more cerebral than actual. And issue #20 of The Manhattan Projects takes readers even deeper down this family rabbit hole.

Here’s the official word from Image:

High stakes as the imagined reality of the Mad Oppenheimers finally collides with the Manhattan Projects proper.

For those of you who’ve followed The Manhattan Projects for a while now, you know that we took a left turn away from plot a a few issues ago. Or, maybe better put, the more traditional plot to this series went on hold — the one where the scientific team responsible for the atomic bomb was busy responding to real drama in real time. Well, more recently, writer Jonathan Hickman has taken readers on a lovely (if not always cogent) tangent featuring twin brothers Joseph and Robert Oppenheimer. Yes, they want to kill each other, and with issue #20 we come to see this epic sibling battle is capable of taking place across both space and time. While seemingly tethered in a “real” here-and-now, where the brothers are trading verbal jabs and drinking vodka, various versions of themselves are busy killing one another in alternate universes, or planets, or, actually, I just don’t know. This is to say, the plot doesn’t always follow a clear thread, but it’s wild enough that I loved the ride despite myself.

Nick Pitarra’s art style is almost as quirky as Hickman’s writing style. A blend between old-fashioned cartoons and hyper-realism, he’s found a knack for capturing the insane mood of this book and seems to take particular joy in depicting the random worlds  Hickman has created. Together, this creative team is a joy to behold.

The Manhattan Projects continues to be a creative and engaging read. And I’m not embarrassed to say I continue to love the book even if I don’t always know what the hell is going on.