WEEK 13

The Manhattan Project by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Piatarra was a really awesome comic to read. I’ve always been interested in stories that take place during a real-time period, but are fictionalized to a certain extent. 

             The story starts off with a meeting between an American general and Dr. Oppenheimer, in which the general signs Oppenheimer onto The Manhattan Project. It turns out that Dr. Oppenheimer is one member of a set of twins.  The backstory of the Oppenheimer twins was fascinating, and the colors of the frames that were used to tell this backstory. I liked how the blue frames represent happiness, while the red frames represent a darker side of Joseph, who is one of the twins. Joseph is mentally ill. He would kill animals and then eat them whole. The red frame I really liked was the one where Joseph is holding a dead bird in his hands. It portrays his sick intentions, along with the red color of the frame, which I believe symbolizes blood.  

 

Another part of the story I liked was when American soldiers are about to seize the German doctor’s fortress, and all of the German scientists except one commit suicide by poisoning themselves. There is an intense conversation between the German scientist who survives, Wernher von Bram, and the American scientist Richard Feynman. After their long talk, there is an establishing frame of the German Scientists’ castle with text bubbles that say, “That night, I took Wernher von Braum home to America. Sometime later, he took us to the moon. And then, ten years after that he took us even further.”   

  In conclusion, this story of science, scientists, and a world at war, is a common narrative that’s been told in recent years, whether in connection with World War II, or some science fiction war. Overall, World War II has been a huge influence on many different forms of mediums throughout the world, ever since it started and ended.