Thursday, June 3, 2010

Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown.

A little explanation for this post: A few weeks ago, my brother and I ordered a box of 30 random comics for something like $15, and they recently arrived in the mail. Some of them, I was not a big fan of. See: Beauty and the Beast. Others, I have found to be quite awesome. Chief among them is a pair of comics from Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown. Ironically, we received issues #1 and #3. To our good fortune, Marvel has the comic available to read online, here. The reason they caught my eye is probably pretty obvious; it was the cover art.
It's pretty much like that the whole way through. It seems to be done in watercolor, and has really piqued my interest in the media. The series' art consists primarily the work of Jon J Muth and Kent Williams. Now, I have no problem with the usual pop-art-type comic book illustration style, but I think the novelty of Meltdown's style adds greatly to the already powerful and dramatic paintings. It may sound strange, but the desaturation is pretty refreshing when contrasted with the nauseating colors of most comic books. Oh, and Wolverine is pretty much a characiture of the angry badass that is Wolverine.
Boy howdy. Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown is more than just a pretty face. The art accompanies a great story that offers and alternative history to the disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the USSR. The characters aren't stunning, but I find that one-dimensional characters are pretty much a staple of comic books. Even if you're not a fan of comic books I think the illustrations alone are reason enough to check out the series at the link above. Enjoy!

-Daniel

1 comment:

  1. i remember reading this series as a teenager - blew me away. The art, the story line - a great dose of maturity away from the cartoony work at the time. I bet I have this still tucked away somewhere in the garage...let me go dig it up!

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