Grand Guignol ain’t got nothing on Simone and Calafiore.
Creative Staff:
Story: Gail Simone
Art: J. Calafiore
Colors: Jason Wright
Letters: Dave Sharpe
What They Say:
The Kickstarter phenomenon returns! Fan-favorite creators Gail Simone (Batgirl, Deadpool) and J. Calafiore (Secret Six, Exiles) return to the town whose citizens are hunted—not by villains, but by heroes! The survivors of Megalopolis reluctantly go back to the city—still under the control of formerly beloved superheroes turned brutal killers—on a rescue mission straight into the heart of madness. Get in on the ground floor of this critically acclaimed series and see what happens when the good guys go very, very bad.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Megalopolis stood as the safest city in the entire world, protected by an army of superheroes such as Overlord: The Man of Granite; Red Flame, Southern Belle, and a host of others. However, one day something came out of the ground: something dark and hungry; something that seemed to eat away every last bit of goodness in these heroes. Now Megalopolis is the threshold of Hell—a Golgotha haunted not by the dead, but by the superheroes that once kept it safe.
The former heroes blocked all major exits, but a group of survivors managed to escape, thanks to the sacrifice of Mina Gutierrez. The group thought she was dead, but new evidence suggests that she survived and now a private military contractor has been hired by a very rich woman to retrieve her husband, who was visiting Megalopolis for business on that fateful day. The group needs firsthand intelligence on the city and its heroes, and fortunately or unfortunately, Harold and the other escapees are the only ones with that information. The leader of the PMC, Bennet Tanner, promises that if they help, they will also rescue Mina.
Mina, it turns out, did survive, and now scavenges in the ruins of Megalopolis, dressed in a cloak and respirator, and toting more guns than a militia-man’s wettest dream. She’s managed to survive for a month, but now something stalks her from the shadows and help might not make it to her in time.
There are few writers out there who can make violence and the grotesque into an art. Mark Millar tries, but more often than not slips into juvenile renditions of sex and violence. Scott Snyder comes close, but his work often remains grounded—for lack of a better word—and rarely paints the room red. Really, the two writers who do this the best are Garth Ennis and Gail Simone. They work in violence and grotesqueries the same way other masters use oil and clay. It’s their medium, and both are true masters.
In many ways, Leaving Megalopolis: Surviving Megalopolis is a superhero Grand Guignol. For those unfamiliar with the term, Grand Guignol was a French theater that ran from 1897 to 1962. The theater specialized in sensational violence and terror, never afraid of pushing the boundaries of taste and civility. The same could be said for Simone, who is frightfully good at finding your buttons and pushing them. Her stories are full of blood and thunder, of monsters both inhuman and human that reach down into deepest, darkest crevices of your psyche, unlocking your hidden fears and possibly even desires. Make no mistake, this is a bloody, violent, disturbing story, but all the elements serve the story and make the tainted superheroes and their desiccated city all the more frightening.
Of course, the blood and gore and violence would be mostly left to our imagination if not for the excellent art of J. Calafiore. Calafiore possesses a grounded style, one that doesn’t lend itself to exaggeration or cartoon-y flourishes. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it hyper-realistic, but it certainly leans more that way than to the cartoonish. This style makes the moments of violence and horror all the more jarring and disturbing.
In Summary:
While most first issues tend to focus too much on the worldbuilding and not enough on the plot, Surviving Megalopolis does a fine job of balancing both. Even if you haven’t read the first part, you can pick this up and know exactly where this is, who these people are, what they want, and what stands in the way. It’s damn good storytelling that immediately engages you and sweeps you along for a helluva ride. Dr. Josh gives this an….
Grade: A+
Age Rating: N/A, but certainly not for kids
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: 13 January 2016
MSRP: $3.99
