I love when Mignola’s in his wheelhouse: a silent, hulking
hero, Nazi super-tech, and confused, good-willed everymen along for the ride.
It’s nothing new -- especially if you’re familiar with the world of B.P.R.D. -- but it sure is fun.
The Obligatory Warning: charred corpses. Not terribly
disturbing, but definitely PG-13.
SPOILERS, fresh and not, ahead.
Sledgehammer 44,
as this site’s three other reviews say, is a new miniseries set in the latter
days of World War II in the expanded Mignola-verse (do we say that?). A group
of GIs in occupied France are assigned to protect an ambulatory WMD, and
they’re not sure how they feel about it. In issue #1, the Sledgehammer suit
lands in France, vaporizes some Nazis, and fights a cool-looking Nazi mech. In
other words, this is Mignola fan eye candy.
The art’s terrific. Layout and pacing are particularly
impressive, considering that pp. 3-8 only show a guy waking a few steps and
clanging his hands together. The shifts in perspective and point of view make
that scene, and the book’s others, highly engaging. Jason Latour’s art is
admirably detailed, and though Mignola’s world is traditionally made of craggy,
jagged angles, Latour’s thinner lines and detailed backgrounds still work. My
only sort-of complaint? The noses appear to be on loan from The Vision of Escaflowne. Now, the
promised…
FRESH SPOILERS: which aren’t really spoilers, but elucidate
the context in a way that might affect your reading. If you’ve read the other
stories. And don’t remember them. Enough sentence fragments. The Sledgehammer
suit seems to be the same sort of Vril suit Jim Sacks wore in Lobster Johnson: The Iron Prometheus. I’ve
been only partially in the Mignola loop for awhile, so I’m not sure what other
Vril suit action there’s been between Iron
Prometheus and now. Still, it’s a part of the expanded universe I haven’t
seen for awhile, and continuity’s always a good thing.
Worth the money? Mignola fans, absolutely. Yes also for
casual fans, but skim it first.