In this week’s Thanksgiving Eve Wednesday Comics Reviews, the team reviews the finale of Universal Monsters – The Invisible Man, the new DSTLRY book Galactic #1, a Spawn Christmas one-shot, and more! Plus, The Prog Report!
Universal Monsters – The Invisible Man #4
Writer: James Tynion IV
Artist: Dani
Colorist: Brad Simpson
Letterer: Becca Carey
Publisher: Image Comics – Skybound
Review by Khalid Johnson
Invisible Man #4 is an excellent conclusion that pays off our dear scientist Griffin’s pursuits, wherein he finds himself in the position of prey and predator. And it is funny who his ultimate adversary is — a young boy, with much less access than he.
Themes here include the burden and folly of self-importance, the making one’s life “ordinary,” “mundane” in comparison to the life that they feel they should have. I think this is made folly because of Griffin’s position to privilege; the man is well funded, well kept and his ideal of “freedom” is a life where he can kill whoever he wants, unseen. He is bored and insatiable until he finally turns his experiment on himself.
The beauty of James Tynion IV’s narrative is the exploration of the monster before the transformation. Griffin was always going to become this in one form or another because of who we’ve known him to be. I think this is juxtaposed very well with Tommy, who didn’t ask for this, who did not share Griffin’s misanthropy and lust for brutal violence, whose original destitution was lonely but not quite so lonely as being unseen.
The way Dani draws these pages feels connected to the work of Tim Sale, and it has stunned across this run with colors by Brad Simpson and letters by Becca Carey. The shadows and linework on Griffin add this wonderful and heightened drama, and I can’t rave enough about the reverse silhouettes for the invisible, the strong sensibility for blacks and the trust in Simpson to help define with color and texture all weaved together with Carey’s letters.
This final issue is stellar and Griffin’s closing dilemma after getting what he wants is poetic. Invisible Man #4 is an excellent conclusion.
Galactic #1
Writer: Curt Pires
Art: Amilcar Pinna
Colors: Lee Loughridge
Letters: Micah Myers
Publisher: DSTLRY
Review by Clyde Hall
Star Wars rocking an R rating as a Quentin Tarantino-esque grindhouse vision of space opera? That’s basically how DSTLRY promoted Galactic, and the similes fit. But there’s more in the mix, with a dram of Game of Thrones and maybe even Dune as part of the recipe. Writer Curt Pires really has thrown a lot at the interstellar bulkhead to see what pulls enough G’s to stick.
To his credit, a lot of it does in the premiere issue. There’s a certain reckless, scoundrel charm evident in this worldly layer added to familiar tropes. Yet, those tropes are recognizable and lead in expected directions. Which cuts down on any surprise elements regarding the paths this narrative takes. When we get Joffrey-Lite, Pires runs him through actions you’d imagine the character taking rather than toying with our expectations. Deviations may come later in the run, but in the initial entry? It felt predictable. Maybe that’s the point.
Which isn’t to say it’s not enjoyable. We’re in the season of Hallmark movies, when familiar becomes comfort food for the soul. And Amilcar Pinna sets a festive sci-fi table with artwork you can drool over. The advertising is also quite accurate. In both narrative and illustration, we get familiar characters strutting adult situations the originals didn’t.
Jecht Marko and Wolf are bounty hunters helming their starship The Bombshell across the cosmos doing jobs and taking sanctions. They aren’t subtle, and they have earned a rep. Not a good one, but still. After an introduction to their chaotic methods of operations, their Bounty Agent gives them a lucrative contract. The daughter of the Chancellor of House Silva, Seriah, is missing and believed to have left of her own volition, owing to a rebellious spirit. Bringing her back means a major payday for our hunters. Naturally, that chaotic work ethic gets in their way leading to all manners of misadventure before the situation mires into deathly serious competing House politics.
The first issue really is beautiful, unique panel arrangements and splashes by Pinna pulling you in with black hole level attraction. Reading it in digital format, I’ll admit it took a while to latch onto the progression pattern, but that may just be me. There are also playful costume designs Pinna utilizes, reinforcing the recognition with other franchises and properties.
Pires’ script is equally playful in tone at times. Jecht aims to misbehave, though his accuracy might not quite match Malcolm Reynolds shot-for -shot nor best him in a quip showdown. Seriah could pass as a twining of both Space Princesses, Leia and Vespa. There are also moments where artist and writer, visually or with dialogue, reach for pathos regarding the main characters. They achieve reader understanding, but it feels early on given the book’s tone to foster deep feelings for their cast such moments seemed centered on. Look for the connections to deepen in subsequent issues, though, as starship-enforced power grabs dye the void of space even darker. If the romance is R, battle may be on a cosmic Saving Private Ryan scope as well.
If costuming Easter eggs from other sci-fi and space opera fiction tickle your heart, and if you grin when memes proclaim, “I think I got the wrong Flash Gordon movie!” while displaying a DVD cover or scene from Flesh Gordon, I think you’ll like Galactic. It has that described familiar flavor attraction going for it. Also, enough humor and action to make the jump to hyperspace and poignancy that the creative team’s laid groundwork for within these pages.
Devil on My Shoulder #1
Writer: Kyle Starks
Artist: Piotr Kowalski
Colorist: Brad Simpson
Letterer: Joshua Reed
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Due Out: Nov. 26
Review by Zack Quaintance
This comic opens with the following line: They told me my name was dogshit.
Given the background of the creative team (more on that shortly), I thought this might be a line that would be played for a laugh. But it wasn’t. Quite the opposite, and as a result, this comic was not quite what I was expecting, although that was more on me than the book itself. This book is from the creative team of writer Kyle Starks, artist Piotr Kowalski, colorist Brad Simpson, and letterer Joshua Reed. The artist and writer have previously worked together on the (very underrated) series, Where Monsters Lie, which is horror with some laughs to it.
In fact, most (but not all) of Starks’ work tends to have laughs to it. So, I thought I knew what to expect here. But as it turns out, Devil on My Shoulder #1 is much darker than past Starks-Kowalski collaborations, driven as it is by a story of severe torture and revenge. In fact, it’s much darker than the vast majority of comics I’ve read this year. It’s a harsh story, to be sure.
And be warned, when this comic hits its darkest points, it’s very disturbing. The story follows a woman who is kidnapped, held, and severely abused by a group of young men in just about every way, for a period of weeks. We get a montage of that abuse, and it’s tough to stomach. The art (which is very strong throughout) plays the torture in an almost even-handed way that makes it hit harder. It’s not sensationalized or stylish at all.
It’s just what’s happening, it’s disturbing, and that’s the point.
Ensign’s Log Stardate 11262025
As IDW’s Star Trek comics continue to expand, Ensign Avery Kaplan has enlisted here to keep a careful log!
Star Trek: Voyager – Homecoming #3
Writers: Susan Bridges & Tilly Bridges
Artist: Ángel Hernández
Colorist: Charlie Kirchoff
Letterer: Neil Uyetake
The third issue of Star Trek: Voyager – Homecoming continues to move the story along… and continues to play out in such a way that you’d believe it was the eighth season of the show. In this issue, that means the addition of another familiar VOY antagonist to balance out the presence of Species 8472. As with the previous issues, Voyager – Homecoming #3 includes character spotlight moments for the majority of the crew.
Thanks to continuity in shows like Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Picard, we know several of the plotlines will come to a happy resolution… but at this point, it’s any reader’s guess as to how those resolutions will arrive. Once again, Voyager – Homecoming #3 demonstrates that the entire creative team — writers Susan Bridges & Tilly Bridges, artist Ángel Hernández, colorist Charlie Kirchoff and letterer & designer Neil Uyetake — continues to understand the assignment. I very much hope we get to see this “Voyager Season 8” story continue beyond the fifth issue of this limited series!
The Prog Report
2000AD 2460 (Rebellion Publishing): Armed with the gravitas of being set in the world of Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell’s classic Zenith comics (and sharing some of the same characters), the Red Dragon comes to an end in this week’s Prog. And while I need to look back at all I covered in this space so far this year, I think this might be my favorite 2000AD story of 2025. A lesser writer might call this a slow burn mystery comic (it concerns characters with fire starting powers), but not me. I’ll call it instead a rewarding dual narrative that uses withheld information to build to an excellent crescendo. It is a story written by Rob Williams, and told across two timelines, one illustrated by Patrick Goddard (and colored by Dylan Teague) and the other illustrated by Yeowell, all with letters by Simon Bowland. I have marveled in this space previously about how well it juggles what it reveals and when, and, indeed, that certainly carries through to this final chapter. I must admit, however, that I struggled a bit with this strip when I was reading it installments, and it didn’t fully come together for me until I binged it in chunks. But that’s fine. I chalk that up to the intrigue and the complexity. This week’s final chapter was extra-long, and it covered a lot of ground. The pacing makes it compulsively readable though, and the ending is certainly worthy of the mysteries that came before it. I need a bit of time to chew over the thematic material here (there are things about shadowy American operatives, being an outcast among your peers, having a provincial smalltown mindset that), but the fact that there is so much to process I think speaks to just how excellent this comic was start to finish. This week’s cover (above) is by Nick Percival. As always, you can pick up a digital copy of The Prog here. —Zack Quaintance
Column edited by Zack Quaintance.
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