Review – Leviathan #1

Leviathan #1 - Image Comics

Written & Letters by John Layman

Art by Nick Pitarra

Colors by Michael Garland

I think it's safe to say that we all have at least one person that we know that you never want to see show up at a party.  For whatever reason it just brings everything and everyone down to the point where you're clock watching and searching your brain for excuses.  Goth Jimmy definitely takes that to a new level in a new comic book series co-created by John Layman and Nick Pitarra.  Let's stomp through the pages of Leviathan.

The story starts out innocently, with Ryan Deluca forgetting to buy enough beer for a party that he's having.  So he did what any of us would probably do...he goes to the store with one of his buddies while everyone else finds a way to entertain themselves.  Without spoiling anything, that turned out to be one of the worst ideas ever.  I mentioned Goth Jimmy before, well he does something that goes far beyond a party trick.  Perhaps you've seen the cover to this book?  You can imagine what happens after that, but me describing it to you really wouldn't do it justice.  Ryan makes a brave, snap decision to go save the love of his life and how that turns out is really the cliffhanger of the first issue.

There is a niche that I think Leviathan fits into quite well.  Big monsters and campy fun is how I would really describe this book in a nutshell.  For a book that deals with some dark, serious stuff it finds a way to remain light and humorous in it's own way.  Before I dive more into the story, I have to stress just how great of a job Nick Pitarra and Michael Garland did in this issue.  The colors are all over the page, especially when it matters most.  Pitarra also has a full page spread in this book that you really want to pay attention to, because I believe I caught a couple of hidden elements in there (HINT:  pay attention to the buildings and the "smoke".)  You want to get the monster right in a book like this, and they do.  You can tell from the opening pages that there is a clear love for the Kaiju monster heritage here and I think this is a good homage to that so far.  At the same time, it's clear that Layman and company want to put a different spin on that.  I feel like the tone they have set in this issue does that, and I hope it continues throughout the run.

RATING:  PULL / BUY