IDW Publishing 2017
Written by Cullen Bunn & Jimmy Johnstone
Illustrated by Andrew Griffith & Ron Joseph
Coloured by David Garcia Cruz
Lettered by Tom B. Long
Well I don’t know about y’all but i’m completely and totally enjoying my time getting to know the Micronauts. I wholeheartedly admit that I new of them peripherally and when Marvel did their comic for the first time and the toys were introduced I was probably their perfect target audience, I was nine years old after all. Still at the time I was into other things and these toys weren’t something that caught my eye. So this for me is brand spanking new and what Cullen, Jimmy and the rest are doing is beyond any hope I could have had for a toy franchise.
Karza is a great foe and the fact that he holds the Earth and it’s denizens in such low regard and instead fears Oz and his crew is something I find fascinating. Don’t get me wrong I love that Karza is on Earth and doesn’t suffer from the affliction of the others, meaning how is he full sized and not microverse sized? Regardless that he’s so sure of his actions and place in all this being what it is i’m absolutely loving him as a character.
So the guys decide to take us on a journey here and start revealing a few things that Karza learned while in the Entropy Cloud. His time spent with those travellers gave him what he thinks is certainty of foretold events. However from everything we’ve ever seen time is never set in stone it’s fluid and always changing so whatever it is he thinks he knows will undoubtedly be something else entirely and his overconfidence will help in his downfall. Well that’s usually how it goes so we’ll see but dang everything we learn and see here just makes all the possibilities seem endless and inevitable at the same time.
Loving the interiors here! The way page layouts are used and then the angles, perspective and utilisation of backgrounds to fully flesh out the story is superbly done. The attention to detail here is phenomenal! Plus the linework and how it all flows is simply beautiful to see. The accents, highlights, lowlights and everything in between conspire to make the most dramatic effects possible and they keep your eyes glued to the page to take in everything.
If you haven’t taken a chance on the latest version of the Micronauts and you’ve wondered what it’s about then I suggest you take a look at this. With only the second issue on stands it’ll be easy to find and it’s completely new reader friendly as everything you need to understand what’s happening is explained along the way. I mean for my money I gotta tell ya this is not only the perfect look at a franchise villain but it’s a great way to become more involved and invested in their place within the new Hasbro Universe.
IDW has found a way to not only revitalise the whole Hasbro universe but make a fresh viable reading alternative to the schelcht that others are putting out these days. The writing is strong and the interior artwork solid and this is the kind of stuff we want to see in our monthly reading list.