Hello and welcome to Comic Book Herald’s Hickmania, a series running through 2022 where we’ll be reading and analyzing the creator-owned works of writer Jonathan Hickman, from his debut The Nightly News through to his most recent output. We’ll be reading one creator-owned work a month through 2022, and each month I’ll release a new analysis with a new guest discussing the comic!
Today we’re talking A Red Mass for Mars
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Previously: Past episodes of Hickmania
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Topics today include:
- When do “Dark Superman” stories work well?
- What does Ryan Bodenheim bring as an artist to Hickman’s creator owned vision?
- How effectively does A Red Mass For Mars explore Utopia? How has Hickman done it in Marvel books like X-Men since this time?
- Is it fair to say this graphic novel is “Spectacle and Plot” over everything?
- Where does A Red Mass for Mars fit in the Hickman early graphic novels?
A Red Mass for Mars is:
Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Ryan Bodenheim
Colors: Hickman
Letters: Rus Wooten
Publisher: Image
Referenced interviews / essays:
https://www.tor.com/2013/01/02/the-strange-poetics-of-jonathan-hickman/
https://www.cbr.com/hickman-bodenheim-hold-a-red-mass-for-mars/
Schedule:
January 2022 – The Nightly News
February 2022 – Pax Romana
March 2022 – Transhuman / Ultimates
April 2022 – A Red Mass For Mars
May 2022 – The Red Wing
June 2022 – The Manhattan Projects
July 2022 – Secret
August 2022 – God is Dead
August/Sept 2022 – East of West
October 2022 – The Dying and the Dead
November 2022 – The Black Monday Murders
December 2022 – Decorum
December 2022 – 3W3M