Advance Review: ‘Big Game’ #1 Has All The Makings Of A Brash And Bloody Blockbuster

Every big blockbuster crossover has the unenviable job of not only setting up the story but also introduce the various and many characters without making it feel like simply throwing each one into the mix with little connecting them all. Well, I’m here to report that Mark Millar and Pepe Larraz’s Big Game #1 does a grand job of both set up and introduction with the dark, secretive Fraternity taking centre stage at the start of the debut issue with enough exposition to let the readers in on their plans. Kill and capes. 

And so we get just that. And more. Nemesis becomes a very good weapon by which the Fraternity can carry out their mission effectively as we take a whistle stop tour across the Millarverse and are reintroduced to many – but not all – of the characters he has created over the past two decades, all richly illustrated by Larraz. From what I can ascertain Larraz seem to make use of both ink and pencil in his depiction of the various scenarios featured, with shading adding texture, breadth and depth to each page. The colour work of Giovanna Niro blends with Larraz’s artwork in places to create a string sense of watercolours, particularly in one awe-inspiring double page spread at the and of the book, but also when Duke McQueen, from Millar’s Starlight series, is speaking with a small class of youngsters. The sun shining through the window and bathing the sci-fi hero in glorious, golden rays. A scene not only implying his heroism but also a sharp contrast from the gothic setting of the previous scene featuring the Fraternity.

It’s a simple enough premise, and so the story is set in motion with an added mystery of an excavation site that must surely have some relevance to the bigger picture. It will be down to subsequent issues to broaden out these brushstrokes of a story, but in this first issue it’s enough to offer the reader a good appetiser for things to come. A well-balanced, well-paced issue that doesn’t rely on you to have read Wanted – Millar’s first ever indie title –  but it helps. Although, the young Wesley Gibson of that series – and head of the Fraternity – has aged in the real-time and looks very different from his Eminem-inspired formative years. And for those long-term fans, you’re going to find plenty to please you with familiar faces returning to finish of the job they thought they’d completed in 1986. As for fresher faces fans, you’ll get the first dramatic instalment in what is already gearing up to be a bloody, ballsy blockbuster with the kind of high-caliber art a series of this stature deserves. The very first page, with its battered and bloody fallen hero is a sombre and shocking first impression to this summer blockbuster but also, symbolically, an apt image to sum up the tone of this book. This is most definitely not like any summer crossover you’ll have read before.

Big Game #1 is out Wednesday 19th July from Image Comics