From writers Jonathan Hickman (East of West, House of X/Powers of X) and Nick Spencer (Morning Glories, Spider-Man) along with artists Mike Huddleston, Mike Del Mundo, and Jerome Opena comes the introductory chapter of one of the most anticipated projects on modern comics with 3 Worlds/3 Moons: Foundations. Featuring colors by Matt Hollingsworth and lettering from Rus Wooton, this opening issue finally brings this infamous experiment to life for a larger crowd and immediately pleases as some of the best sci-fi and fantasy comics storytelling in recent memory. With an enigmatic imaginative, and compelling script, sharp design-work, and staggering visuals, Foundations is exactly the kind of start that fans of this crew’s work have come to expect – but will undoubtedly still be blown away by.
“Across a distant solar system and countless millennia-long cycles, a war has been fought between the forces of magic and science, and order and chaos. When astronaut and explorer Tajo Vallar undertakes a doomed expedition to a dormant moon full of mysteries, the conflict begins anew, and it will be more dangerous than ever before!”
Writing & Plot
While Jonathan Hickman and Nick Spencer are the primary architects of 3 Worlds/3 Moons: Foundations, this opening chapter and all those that follow are the result of a great comics storytelling experiment that famously started several years ago via a Substack. Much of the worldbuilding and concept art was crafted directly in front of subscribers, and those viewers were even allowed to make suggestions and share ideas with the creators. In a way, aspects of the story are crowd-built. 3 Worlds / 3 Moons is set in a distant universe where magic and science are at war. Tajo Vallar, an astronaut and exploring scholar, leads a crew of other experts to a mysterious moon rife with potentially heretical secrets. What this team discovers is something ancient and misunderstood that will undoubtedly lead us on a journey for the rest of this series. Like all of Hickman and his co-creator’s best work, there is a genuine human core at the center of all of the mysticism and science-fiction. Tajo Vallar is a man with a family, a son and a daughter, and despite his mission, he ultimately just want to go home to them. The script jumps from the foreshadowing words of magical gods to the expository explanations of how this universe works then back to the simple tale of a young son worrying about his astronaut father, and none of these story elements skip a beat. Due to Foundations being the sort of comic that it is, there is a fair amount of exposition split up between the infamous spreadsheet/tech manual breakdowns and the actual character interactions – most notably Tajo reading to his son about the origins of the 3W/3M universe they reside in. None of this is exposition is anything less than fascinating, however. Hickman and Spencer’s dialogue is a stellar bland of sci-fi jargon, eldritch prose, and pure naturalistic humanity that keeps this sci-fi/fantasy story from ever feeling stale. Foundations is also split up into 3 chapters of a sort, with each part separated by some of those infamous manual-like into dumps. This may bug some people, but really this just makes this issue feel all the more unique. From a writing perspective, Foundations is an impossibly intriguing opening that will be a must-read for fans of this specific brand of speculative fiction.
Art Direction
Breathing life into 3 Worlds/3 Moons: Foundations is the visual work of artists Mike Del Mundo, Jerome Opena, and Decorum co-creator Mike Huddleston. Each of these artists works on a separate chapter in this issue, and their combined work is a brilliant feat of fantastical sci-fi artistry. Huddleston’s multi-layered illustrations and complex designs pull readers right into this strange new environment, all while still offering stellar character art as well. His and Del Mundo’s visuals in the second chapter shift with the scope of the changing story, with Huddleston’s acumen for strange creations perfectly complement’s Del Mundo’s character art and movement. The final chapter, drawn by F.E.A.R. Agent and Seven to Eternity artist Jerome Opena, feels the most alien and isolating only for it to wrap back up into the human elements of the story. Opena never misses a beat here, and his work falls in line perfectly with the rest of the book while still vert much feeling like his own work. Foundations uses a great mixture of sequential direction, from in-panel closeups to large splash pages to give focus to the minute character details and the greater revelations seen as the story and scope progresses. The designs for the entities we meet are staggeringly cool, pulling from our world’s own mythology to create something new and deeply intriguing. Matt Hollingsworth’s color art is the unifying factor in Foundations’ visual experience. His distinct choice of a palette takes the experience from the cozy environs of a child’s nightlight-lit bedroom to the green, alien haze of a mysterious chamber on a distant moon, all for it to crescendo to the dreamlike visions of a meeting with magical gods. Hollingsworth’s colors are the piece that pull the overall incredible visual presentation of Foundations together.
Verdict
3 Worlds/3 Moons: Foundations is a wondrously imaginative opening chapter to this long-awaited story. Hickman and Spencer’s script is full of both compelling exposition and great character writing, never forgetting to ingrain the human element into what is sure to be a sweeping epic of sci-fi and fantasy. The visual storytelling from Mike Huddleston, Mike Del Mundo, Jerome Opena, and color artist Matt Hollingsworth is a stunning and expertly crafted journey into lands of distant myth, with unique design work and excellent character art all pulling the reader into this strange new universe. Be sure to grab this debut issue when it hits shelves on July 8th!
