American Mythology Productions 2018
Written by Mark L. Haynes & J.C. Vaughn
Illustrated by Gordon Purcell & Great LaRocque
Coloured by Emmanuel Ordaz Torres
Lettered by Natalie Jane
All of American Mythology's Stargate Atlantis comics to date have been leading up to this! Singularity pits the Atlantis team against the out-of-control Ancient, Janus, and his alien army, with the fate of two galaxies on the line! This is the first of three issues that will wrap up the epic events of Back to Pegasus, Gateways, and Hearts & Minds.
So the opening here is a real wow moment for sure. Fran, last seen in the episode “ghost in the machine” is back but she’s not the same woman they knew this time around she’s got a familiar visage alright and one that will hopefully shock Janus back to sanity at least that’s the hope of those around her. I have been loving these three issue “episodes” from American Mythology they are as good as the show on television ever was. The guys here really know the franchise and they know these characters and they know how to move things forward from where the show left off.
Also I am pretty impressed that the individual mini series all are contained in what we would consider a single season each one leaving off ready for the next and now culminating in this story. Though personally I would like to see them come out a lot more often as I miss the show and these characters a lot more than I realised until I started reading these. A credit to the guys because the characterisation and what we see in the premise of each one is so good and strongly resembles the source material.
As much as I want to talk current plot twist, I will not because it’s a doozy and you should read it yourself to fully understand why, let’s talk about something else that is occurring in these pages. Walter and Chuck finally get off that crazy world which was crumbling fast beneath their feet. I liked how that played out and where they end up because as crazy lucky as it is I don’t think luck played much of a role and there had to be more of “divine” intervention. Oh I miss Thor.
I have been a fan of the interiors throughout the runs and that doesn’t stop now. I am enjoying the resemblance of the actors while they still maintain enough differentials to make it work. The linework is nice, smooth and the varying weights behind them work well for their respective purposes. I am going to guess Greg had fun with world ending pages because I gotta tell ya I sure did and it really had that fun and excitement of someone in that mode drawing it. The way that page layouts are utilised so that we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off the nice eyes for storytelling. I would like to see more backgrounds I mean you’d never see that nothing but colour behind their heads on a show so why not go the extra mile here, they are introduced but not utilised throughout and that’s a shame because when we see them they what is intended of them.
Another thing about this version of the franchise that I find incredibly well done is that any science fiction fan who never got to see the programme on television can enjoy these series as stand alone adventures. It is the best of both worlds really with great pacing, structure and characterisation the guys really have perfected the art of translating a television show into comic book form. I think this is a highly underrated series and should be talked about a lot more.