Red Anvil Comics 2018
Story by Chris Malgrain
Written by Joe Martino
Illustrated by Chris Malgrain, Luca Cichitti, Jim Arden, Pat Martinez & Oliver Hudson
Coloured by Chris LaCroix & Dash Martin
Lettered by Ed Dukeshire
Man, Out of Time
The Mighty Titan finds himself whisked way into an alternative past. In this past live heroes of amazing powers and abilities. Titan meets Steel Patriot, a super man who has fought in both World Wars and is the USA's liaison to the superheroes of The Formidibles Universe in 1959!
I really like the Mighty Titan and I wish we were able to get more of his adventures but with the real world intruding on the creators time well I will settle for what I can get. Also it is really cool that these little one-shot tie-in issues are being done so we can see heroes from different companies, different creators and such getting to meet and team-up or fight as the first meetings of heroes tends to do. Or introduce a new character that can get his own limited series in the future. Any way you slice it this is what we love about comic books it’s got the bright colourful costumes, the banter from the past between them and that overall feeling of hope.
So the way that this is structured is great. As the Mighty Titan arrives in a city he doesn’t recognise and the Steel Patriot is there before him. There are a couple things here that I found surprising story wise but that isn’t something to really explore here, hint Joe and Chris another limited series featuring Herald City’s masked protector. Mistaken identity is one thing but when the two men don’t recognise each other there is bound to be that massive misunderstanding that could’ve been handled with a little sit down chat. Though I really don’t think the Steel Patriot would’ve had the chat there not with what he says.
There is another interesting little thing happening here and that’s the one who is actually responsible for the Mighty Titan being in this reality. What we get is a complete compact origin story and a set up for the book the Formidibles, which is also out this week. This chunk of the story sets up the whole idea of a multiverse for these characters or solidifies it considering where we in the main limited series (which I have no idea how many were already published).
The interior artwork here is done by a slew of people and while you can see some heavy inking on some pages for the most part it is all indistinguishable. It has a nice seamless feel to it and I found extremely impressive. I love the anatomy of the characters with their bulging muscles, though why doesn’t the Steel Patriot have hairy pits?, and how we see their colourful costumes. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows some really nice eyes for storytelling. I adore the fact that backgrounds are utilised as they are here they really make what we see that much better.
I love this book, if you’ve never read anything from Red Anvil well first of all shame on you and second this is the kind of introduction to their characters, the style of writing and interior artwork you can expect. The pacing is excellent, the premise strong and the characterisation is spectacular then add into the mix the classic comic book style interiors and you’ve got the past and present meeting up in the best ways possible. This is more like the comics I first read but they’ve got the kind of writing that lets you know it’s today’s world.