Image Comics reviews 7/19/23 – Big Game #1
By far the most frustrating aspect of Big Game #1 is its final page. It signifies waiting another month for the most exciting and rewarding crossover in at least a decade.
This felt like an old school crossover before they became obligations and “events” for the excuse of killing off popular characters only to resurrect them for the next one. Over the last few years, Mark Millar has been meticulously building up his Millarworld series of titles.
Along the way there’s been very few interactions save Hit Girl vs. Kick Ass and a tease in Sharkey the Bounty Hunter of a connected universe. Big Game makes good on that promise with connections to titles including The Magic Order, Prodigy, Space Bandits, Ambassadors and Night Club.
The conclusion of Nemesis served as a stinger for the opening act of Big Game.
Wesley Gibson reveals himself as Nemesis’ mysterious master cultivating him to join the cause to stop the return of the super heroes.
Wesley’s father helped lead the surgical strike in 1986 to kill the heroes and make the world forget they existed. That setting is not a coincidence as Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns ushered in a new era of darker, more cynical comic storytelling. It was the year the magic died in a sense and Millar frames that as the year the villains won…until now.
Geniuses like Prodigy’s Edison Crane and The Ambassadors Choon-He have begun to question the historical narrative and are posing a major threat to Wesley and his group.
Initially, it seemed ambitious for Millar to attempt to work all his titles into one crossover, but it flows so seamlessly as he shifts from Starlight to Kick-Ass. And the way Millar weaves the characters into the story is so smooth that it feels surprisingly organic. This also helps establish the big time feel of this story with a threat so powerful that clearly all the heroes won’t survive.
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Pepe Larraz’s artwork is outstanding. With so many talented artists working to co-establish these titles from Olivier Coipel, Jorge Jimenez, Rafael Albuquerque, Matteo Scalera, Gigi Cavenago and more, Larraz proves an ideal bridge artist capable of visuals that capture the essence and style of the respective artists’ take on the characters.
From big spread pages to intricate detailing, Larraz delivers on all front with the equally brilliant color work of Giovanna Niro and Clem Robins’ steady and assured lettering.
To some extent Big Game feels like the Millarworld analogy to Crisis on Infinite Earths as it unites all the characters from different spectrums of the universe to tell one potentially cataclysmic story.
The title might be hard to appreciate or understand for readers who haven’t followed Millar’s work since Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl, but it’s worth exploring the entry titles. Big Game looks like it’s going to be a major game changer for the MIillarworld titles and possibly the comic landscape in general.
Rating: 10 out of 10
Photo Credit: Image Comics