Review: Brian Wood's 'The Massive' Vol. 1 Is Epic and Original

Tyler Mager has written for CollegeMovieReview.com and the Scorecard Review and is a filmmaker based out of Austin, TX. He also covers IDW's Joe comics right here in his regular feature "Into the Pit." Now he's taking a look at the first collection of Brian Wood's sci-fi series 'The Massive' from Dark Horse Comics...

Cover art for The Massive Vol. 1. Brian Wood/Dark Horse Comics.​

The events in The Massive aren't world ending so much as world changing. Mother Nature turned her back on humankind and the result is a fractured, split world which struggles to survive among the ruins of civilization. The backdrop is epic in scope but the focus is on the small crew aboard a conservationist ship called the Kapital, who refuse to abandon their mission of finding their long lost sister ship, the Massive. Somewhat similar to a modern television show there's a big mysterious goal guiding the larger arc but with these first few issues it's more about survival and exploration. Writer Brian Wood really wants us to get to know this world and the people that inhabit it before overloading us with too much plot too quickly. The result is a wonderfully grounded what-if scenario built on realism and rich characters that are as fractured and complicated as the new world.

The storytelling takes an approach similar to Lost in that much of the initial character development is told through flashbacks, usually informing and building upon what's taking place in the present. Slowly and methodically we learn what makes each of these characters tick, shedding the obvious and cliché classifications in an effort for something more relatable. The goal isn't to transport you to a different world but instead make you feel as at home as possible so that when the big moments happen, you are right there beside these characters. Wood has the rare ability to take something so familiar and skew it just enough so that it continues to engage while never making you feel like you've seen everything. He gives you just enough to be satisfied, but you're always wanting more.

The book is really broken up into two smaller 3-issue arcs, each with a different situation the crew was deal with and as a result different artists split the duties between the halves. The first entitled “Landfall” deals mostly with a sea-based cat and mouse game between the Kapital and pirates through dense fog while tracing a signal they think is from the Massive. It's a slow burn thriller with more emphasis on backstory and past events than any sort of real narrative beyond finding the Massive. It's nonetheless exciting with Kristian Donaldson's art cleverly displaying the sea excursion as above water submarine warfare, the moments of silence and tension accentuated with Dave Stewart's grim grays and deep blues.

The second half entitled “Black Pacific” is land and survival based dealing with the crew's need for supplies and the unorthodox ways they go about getting them. Like “Landfall” there isn't a big narrative arc to the second half. Instead it's about the individual situations the crew find themselves in and the moral implications of the choices they make. The world isn't nice and tough decisions must be made. What happens when nice, decent people are saddled with those tough decisions? Garry Brown's art for “Black Pacific” contrasts Donaldson's with a more rough, pressured approach that heightens the more intense, action specific sequences. He sacrifices detail for energy and the result is a perfect match for the writing style.

If there are any weak spots in The Massive's hull, they are all minor dents and more than made up for by the excellent art and Wood's dedication to deep characters and engaging plotting. The only disappointment might come in how the story ends. Will it all be worth it in the end? It's a slow build on a mysterious narrative and as of right now appears to be well worth the investment. The Massive is one of the most promising original titles in recent memory offering a beautiful union of world building, concept, and characters that I can't recommend enough.

Review: Dark Horse's 'Star Wars' On-Going Goes Beyond 'A New Hope'

With Disney's acquisition of Star Wars. the future of this book - an on-going series set immediately after the events in Episode IV: A New Hope - has been called into question. Dark Horse has been very good to Star Wars, and though we may see the franchise return to Marvel, under Disney's watch, there's no better swan song than an indefinitely numbered Star Wars series starring Luke, Leia, Han, and, of course, Darth Vader.

There's an unusual amount of recap exposition going on in Star Wars #1, and I have to assume this is for the Clone Wars crowd, not for those of us that have the original films nearly memorized. It's right after the Battle of Yavin, and Leia is afforded an opportunity by Mon Mothma to assist the Rebels in a way that will help shake her reputation as just a politician. Meanwhile, Vader is sidelined by the Emperor and asked to relinquish control of the Empire's fleet to new character Col. Bircher. I don't want to go into too much more synopsis detail than that because the best thing about Star Wars #1  is how it sets up the potential of an interesting new serialized adventure.

I mentioned Clone Wars, and, if anything, Brian Wood and Carlos D'Anda have made something for all ages in the same way that the best Star Wars films are all-ages. It's an easy read with an intriguing hook, sporting appealingly detailed art by D'Anda. It's not specifically a "kids' book" but it's been a while since I've read anything that I'd be 100% comfortable passing along to an 8-year old. If you're a comic-reading Star Wars fan parent, this could be the series you and your kid both read on a monthly basis (and with a digital copy included with every physical copy, Dark Horse is making Star Wars very easy to share).

For something so highly anticipated, Star Wars gets off to a downright modest start. That's not a huge criticism - it's a book with a lot of polish - but my expectations for the first Star Wars ongoing in years to deliver something truly fantastic were perhaps too high. Wood and D'Anda started this book with all the time in the world, and the first issue is them pretty much stretching their legs a bit and starting their sprint with a slow jog. I'm content for now to sit back and watch them run.

Reviews: Dark Horse's 'Conan Vol. 13: Queen of the Black Coast' and 'Robert E. Howard's Savage Sword Vol. 1'

I was only halfway through the comic book adaptation of Conan: Queen of the Black Coast, when I thought, "this is the best Conan comic I've ever read." Find out that it's an adaptation, and the mind boggles. Comic adaptations typically suck. This one, based on Robert E. Howard's Conan story of the same name, is a revelation in the hands of writer Brian Wood and artists Becky Cloonan and James Harren.

I've never read any Howard, but I've seen the Conan movies and have sampled a comic here and there. I come to the book with only a basic working knowledge of the character through pop culture osmosis. That was enough. The comic itself is transcendent - not just good Conan comics but good comics.

The story sees the barbarian at an early point in his adult life, slightly more roguish than we're used to, but not out of character. Fleeing captors in Argo, he hops a boat without invitation, and learns from those sailors the threat of Belit, the dreaded Queen of the Black Coast. What other men might find intimidating - Belit's ruthless reputation - Conan finds to be the stuff of sexual fantasy. He must have this woman at any cost.

When Conan and Belit cross paths, she is equally as consumed by desire for the unstoppable Cimmerian, and the two begin a relationship that's as lusty and powerfully romantic as anything I've seen in comics, despite the story's six-issue length. Conan decides that his partnership with Belit affords him the perfect opportunity to return to Argo and put his pursuers in their place.

Becky Cloonan needs some kind of special recognition for her work here. She portrays real sexual heat without a bit of the juvenile comic book shorthand that we're used to. Under Cloonan's linework Belit is appropriately sensual and hypnotic; Conan is the masculine ideal. The artwork is alive in such a way that if this were a film, this would be Cloonan's break-out superstar performance.

Harren is in the unenviable position of batting clean-up for Cloonan. If the transition was off-putting at all, Harren makes it his own during the final chapters, which see Conan cleaving attackers in half through their own wimpy chainmail. Cloonan's sensuality is replaced with Harren's electric action right when the story demands it, making this story one of the few where a two-artist team feels like a creative calculation and not one dictated by deadlines.

Brian Wood works magic with Howard's story. I don't know how many of the words are Wood's and how many are Howard's, but the elegance with which Wood has executed this adaptation should be an example to others looking to do the same. Wood trusts his artists to convey emotions and actions without falling into the adaptation trap of captioning in writing exactly what we're looking at in-panel. In fact, Robert E. Howard's Savage Sword collection, which arrived on the shelves at the same time as Queen of the Black Coast, offers the kind of slavish adaptation we're more accustomed to.

The book is a "variety pack" combination of short comic adventures and prose tales, all pulled from Howard's works. There's some Conan, but most of the book is filled with characters I'd never heard of, like Dark Agnes and the Sonora Kid (probably my favorite tale in the book). It works primarily as a Howard primer, so it should find an audience with neophytes like myself as well as die-hards hoping for a comic book adaptation of guys like El Borak. It's a cheese sampler to Black Coast's fine wine, so adjust expectations accordingly.