This week the Wednesday Comics Reviews team tackles giant excellent of Godzilla Heist #1, the possibility of true phenomena with Let This One Be a Devil #1, and the rolling finale of The Holy Roller #9, as well as looking ahead at a new title eligible for pre-order, Free For All. Plus, as always…The Prog Report!
Godzilla Heist #1
Godzilla Heist #1 Writer: Van Jensen
Artist: Kelsey Ramsay
Colorist: Heather Breckel
Letterer: Sandy Tanaka
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Review by Jordan Jennings
When Godzilla: Heist was announced back during New York Comic Con 2024, I was enamored by the idea. The elevator pitch is a remarkably simple one: What if Ocean’s Twelve could take place during a kaiju attack? Let’s be clear, this isn’t exactly the first time this idea has been explored in comics be creator-owned like Kaiju Score from Aftershock or even from Godzilla comics with Godzilla Rivals: Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla. Despite knowing this, I was eagerly counting down the days for Godzilla: Heist #1 to release and I was not let down one bit. I have read a lot of Godzilla comics over the years as a comic reviewer. Some have left me wanting, most are good, but very few are exceptional. Godzilla: Heist #1 is in that rarified air.
Van Jensen wisely spends most of the issue from the perspective of the lead character, Jai. This gets us into his mindset and motivation through Jai’s narration, With the first issue being primarily set up for the Big Heist—an assault on London itself—it is important that we get an understanding for Jai’s motivation for using the Godzilla Heists beyond the money. Jensen begins to set up a backstory for the character through a brief flashback scene but doesn’t dwell in the past too long in favor of keeping the plot moving. Jai and the crew fit into the typical archetypes found in heist stories, but that’s what makes a heist story so much fun as the focus is on the heist itself and the inevitable screw ups that will occur.
The art by Kelsey Ramsay is best characterized as expressive and visually distinct. Their rendition of Godzilla Is marvelous as the King of All Monsters is given the larger-than-life treatment and is illustrated to match the more beastly Heisei era designs. While the members of the gang are fairly rote in design, Jai is given more work. The dirtbag designs really set the character’s tone and demeanor. I just love that piece of trash.
The visceral design of the main characters is complimented by Heather Breckel’s colors. There is a dingy look to the world that is given this level of grit in the texture. Some of this is done through Ramsay’s pencils and ink but the texture in the coloring is definitively from Breckel. It helps set the tone for this skeezy criminal gang that’s about to pull the biggest heist of the century.
Ramsay’s visual storytelling really helps set this story up for success. The big sweeping Godzilla scenes fit the moment with widespread destruction coupled with a variety of panel compositions and angles. This kinetic energy carries over into the more talking head moments with a variety of panel sizes interspersed with panel inlays and transitions. The visual language matches the content of the story in a way that few Godzilla comics capture.
Overall, Godzilla: Heist #1 lives up to my internal hype. I had high expectations for this comic going into It and it delivered. The writing is exactly what the story called for with the dirtbag Jai having just an inkling of a tragic backstory to hook my interest and the art delivered in this almost neo-70’s action with a level of grit on the page that few dare employ. I enjoyed every second of this comic and I give it my highest recommendation for all Godzilla and/or heist movie fans.
Final Verdict: Buy
Let This One Be A Devil #1
Writers: James Tynion IV and Steve Foxe
Art: Piotr Kowalski
Colors: Brad Simpson
Letters: Tom Napolitano
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Review by Clyde Hall
If you’re going to dive into legends and lore regarding the cryptid known as the Jersey Devil (also the Leeds Devil, the Pine Barren’s Devil, or the Wozzle Bug), January of 1909 is a good springboard. While folklore and sightings of the creature had been around in the 18th and 19th centuries, one week in that early year of the 20th produced 30 or more sightings across southern portions of New Jersey.
And that’s just where James Tynion IV and Steve Foxe dropped their plummets exploring the depths of the Jersey Devil mystery. Their story in Let This One Be a Devil #1 follows one Henry Naughton, born in the rural and rustic Pine Barrens region, but recently returned home from college following the death of his father. It’s not a particularly joyful reunion.
His return, Henry says, was to help his mother, Polly, run their farm and make a living. But the Naughtons are cut from the practical, self-sufficient cloth the Barrens are known for. The family received a death settlement from the factory where his father worked and his younger brother, 15-year-old Roy, is seeking the position his father held there. They’ll manage, Polly says. Henry isn’t needed.
It’s a fact that Roy echoes and the other townsfolk make clear. Unlike most of them, Henry did well in book learning. He left the area for college and a career as a scholar. The Barrens doesn’t need scholars, an outlook made crystal by some more pointedly than others. He may be from the Barrens, but he’s not of the Barrens. Even less so after leaving it.
His status as an outsider is made even clearer when he chases off something preying on the family’s chickens. Practical farm folk blame foxes. Wild dogs. Owls. Maybe even a cougar. But Henry knows what he saw, and it was none of those things. A few infer the Leeds Devil, but in true folklore fashion, it’s never named. Naming gives the infernal power, after all.
Newspapers, however, are not shy regarding naming the Devil and the Leeds family that allegedly spawned it in 1735. An article sheds light on the legend’s origin for Henry, and we readers are taken along for the flashback ride. It’s an engaging start.
Coming from a rural background myself, the setting and even the mindsets of the Barrens residents ring true. So do the cryptid sightings and claims. My practical, self-sufficient farming family told of early 20th century encounters with shadowy large cats and Little Red Men of the Woods. It was an era when roads were being cut through what amounted to a huge forest canopy extending from our Midwest home down to Louisiana, and broken only by stretches of farmland. The need for more roads through that canopy might have dislodged many unusual animals rarely encountered by humans, my family speculated. With the advent of interstate highways in the years following World War II, there were increases of cryptid encounters like Bigfoot sightings when those woodlands were even more cut up by heavy equipment and traffic.
Hearing these sorts of encounters, ones similar to Henry’s, recounted by real people from the same era always left me watching the wooded backroads more closely at night. Practical people, used to the region, describing something they didn’t quite understand and freely admitted they had no easy explanation for…that’s a powerful combination. Maybe the fuel for mass hysteria. But also perhaps something real and strange and mysterious.
Tynion and Foxe have conjured the same eerie unease with their work here. They may have hammered the outsider status of Henry harder than needed, but there’s certainly a feeling regarding being Other. It’s a feeling Henry knows and the writers make it relatable to anyone who’s ever stepped into a ‘you aren’t from around here’ situation.
Piotr Kowalski is getting mad artist cred for delivering top illustrations. The Barrens, the styles of homes there, the everyday tools and clothing and farm sheds, all carry a casual accuracy. In turn, that invests his depiction of the Devil with a powerful realism. Whereas many illustrators go stylistic when it comes to cryptid creatures, Kowalski takes a more organic, believable approach. It leaves us identifying with Henry; uncertain of what we saw, but very certain it was real. Like vicarious Scoobies, we’re primed for the second chapter of his investigation next issue.
An added bonus for those Fortean followers is a backup feature written by Rachel Deering, drawn by Jesse Lonergan, and lettered by Aditya Bidikar. “Shattered and Shook” is loosely based on the real life work of parapsychologist William G. Roll and his theory of recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis in youths. A phenomenon, he believed, was likely the true cause of poltergeist activity.
Altogether, Let This One Be a Devil is a solid parcel of cryptid entertainment. Especially if you’re looking for a serious T of the mysteries surrounding such legends and not the wildly inventive storylines or tongue-in-cheek handling that’s more common. It’s a grounded expansion on a fanciful creature, one whose story and cloven hooves take flight on batlike wings thanks to a top creative team.
The Holy Roller #9
Writers: Rick Remender, Andy Samberg, and Joe Trohman
Artist: Roland Boschi
Colorist: Moreno Dinisio
Letterer: Rus Wooton
Publisher: Image Comics – Giant Generator
Review by Zack Quaintance
Man, one more issue and I could have opened with a line about how all ten issues are down — and this one’s a strike. But alas, we wrap up this week with nine. Still, they were all good and this finale is a satisfying conclusion to a fun superhero concept (powerful bowling balls…bowled at the bad guys!) with a powerful set of ethics beneath. And isn’t that really the recipe for most lasting superheroes over the years?
All of that is to say The Holy Roller is a relatively standard superhero story that will win you over by being very charming and fun. I’ve been a fan of this book throughout its run, and one of my favorite things about it has been the tone. There’s been a lot of laughs in this comic, from the protagonist’s superhero one-liners to the banter between the characters to what happens to the hero’s enemy turned (sort of) friend.
It’s perhaps no surprise that there’s laughs here, given that Andy Samberg is one of the co-writers, along with comics pro Rick Remender and Joe Trohman, who is a member of Fall Out Boy. Artist Roland Boschi even seems to model the main character off of Samberg. One thing the comics community has becomes sensitive toward is comics that are backdoor movie pitches — but I actually think this book sort of functions the opposite way. The Holy Roller often felt to me like a movie idea that was too much for Hollywood, and so the team took it to comics.
I’m glad they did. This series has had great superhero moments, a fun cast of smalltown characters, and a series finale that brings it all home with a message of kindness. I enjoyed this series quite a bit. Here’s hoping we’ll get more frames from The Holy Roller someday.
Verdict: BUY
FOC Watch
This book is available for pre-order now.
Free For All #1
Writer/Artist: Patrick Horvath
Publisher: Oni Press
Release Date: March 26
Review by Khalid Johnson
I’m going to start by saying that I cheered by the conclusion of this story. It’s concise with some solid action design as Patrick Horvath does it all. It’s also catharsis that is much needed, especially now. While sitting and simply agreeing with a piece of media is not going to bring about a better world, it can at least help shape our imaginations of a better world.
In Free for All, we see a future where wealth has a redistribution system; being pooled for the welfare of the people instead of hoarded by the elite. The elites are given a choice to give up an allotted amount of their ill-gotten gains or fight like gladiators in an arena to defend their wealth for the enjoyment of the people. There is certainly an ethics question as people cheer on brutal violence, but isn’t the exploitation of labor and extraction of resources also a brutal form of violence?
Horvath places his focus on two central characters, using them as a framing device for an argument against hoarding wealth through revenge between former romantic partners. From the colors, expressions, tech, costuming and combat, this story delivers. I think there is a catharsis for the people in the world of Free for All and for the readers, and to this, what we are presented is the story’s reality that there were mechanisms in place where violence could have been avoidable; if only people would contribute to the welfare of everyone.
If we can imagine a world where the welfare of the people comes first, then we can work to actualize it. Catharsis is great, this story is great (I can’t recommend it enough) and there’s work to be done outside to realize a better world.
The Prog Report
2000AD 2420 (Rebellion Publishing): I am running out of ways to talk about how much I am enjoying Fiends of the Western Front, by writer Ian Edington, artist Tiernen Trevallion, and letterer Jim Campbell. So, this week I will just note that there’s a page wherein a mysteriously powerful being in an old-timey three piece suit rips off a Frankenstein’s arm and beats the Frankenstein with it. What we are dealing with here is just plain and simple good comics. But I suppose there is some element of this story speaks to things I’m interested in: monsters, westerns, and literary figures. Because equally as comic book-y and outrageous has been Portals & Black Goo by writer John Tomlinson, artist Eoin Coveney, colorist Jim Boswell, and letterer Simon Bowland. With a premise that involves bringing macabre meals to monsters (like horror-themed Door Dash), this has been a maximalist strip that leans outrageous, but at some point this one lost me. I think it just tries to do a little too much for my tastes, and ends up feeling a little overwhelming to me. That said, I do wonder if it might read better all at once, reducing the chance that someone like me will lose the thread. This week’s cover (above) is by Tiernen Trevallion. As always, you can pick up a digital copy of The Prog here. —Zack Quaintance
Read more entries in the weekly Wednesday Comics reviews series!
Next week, Nights #13 caps that book’s latest story arc, Sink #15 wraps up a stellar third volume, Godzilla is back and heading for Chicago, and more!
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