I backed a digital copy of The Mythicals #1 during its active funding period back in 2023, but I never got around to reading it before this month. While I did back ultimately back physical copies of issues 1-3 on the campaign for the third installment, H. Wayne Desper, creator and writer, reached out via X asking if I would like PDF versions of issues 1 & 2. At the time of this review, the fulfillment for the third campaign has not yet started.

Before getting underway, I should mention that in addition to Desper, the rest of team for issue 1 is rounded out with Thomas Tikas (pencils), Everson Lyrio (inks), Diego Albuquerque (colors), Rick Joseph (letters) and Piper Steed (editor).

The first issue is subtitled “Prophecy and Protocol (Part 1)” and is a 24-page introduction to the main character Nancy Moon. She meets with the US Department of Interior for a job interview, all the while being harassed by strange characters in her normal, outside-of-work life. In the short span of things, less than 24 hours, Nancy’s life changes ina a big way.

Some story spoilers to follow, if that wasn’t already obvious…

I had a lot of questions while reading the first issue, most surrounding character motivations—the “why” behind something being said or done. I did my best to understand the characters, but a lot of their behavior seemed to be abnormal. Considering how much I had to wrestle with making sense of these things, it affected the overall pacing of the story.

For example, Nancy went to the Department of Interior for her job interview; they contacted her, meaning that she had not started sending out applications for any jobs. How did Nancy not see this as unnerving behavior by a future employer? Coupled with the fact that the interviewer has some pretty personal information about Nancy in a dossier, I can’t help but wonder why she wouldn’t wonder how they had that information, or why she wouldn’t consider leaving the interview altogether. The interviewer also congratulated her for graduating (I’m assuming this would be something recent for him to congratulate her on), but Nancy is 25. Is she a late bloomer to college? Grad school? No answers were given either way, except a line where Nancy unhappily tells a friend that her friend needs to return to Boston (where the interviewer stated Nancy was born) right after graduating. Two panels later, this very friend mentions how glad she was to “meet someone interesting down here in D.C.” – did she and Nancy bond because they were both from Boston? And if they had the same hometown, shouldn’t that point be clearer? Or was it a typo that the two friends were from the same city?

After a clunky start, the pacing picked up and flowed better in the last nine pages of the first issue. It was full of action, and the dialogue choices were more natural. However, Nancy’s reaction to her friend’s death (you were warned about spoilers) was odd, to say the least. Why didn’t Nancy more seriously question her choice to leave her friend behind? She was the last one to see her alive at the bar, after all. Aside from Nancy just abandoning her, why didn’t the cops come asking Nancy for some answers?

The main plot of The Mythicals (the part following Nancy) was broken up with a secondary story about an evil being and a priest. I didn’t feel as though there was enough information presented in this particular subplot to demonstrate its importance, other than the evil being likes to inflict pain on people… uh… Spoilers? As it was presented, this subplot felt extraneous to everything happening in Nancy’s main story.

The best part of issue 1 was that the story provides a decent ending for the first episode, so to speak. Nancy gets the job at the Department of Interior, she learns more about the job (although I expect that she has more questions in the back of her mind), and then there is the very, very end – which I won’t spoil – that definitely leaves things open-ended and piques the reader’s interest into ‘what happens next’ – exactly how a floppy-style comic book should end, in my opinion (and a mark that so many other creators miss).

The art in The Mythicals issue 1 (again, by Tikas and Lyrio), while often not perfect, anatomy-wise, did a decent job of being dynamic and interesting. Coupled with Albuquerque’s colors, you were able to easily distinguish who was whom when the characters interacted. The page layouts were solid, and I didn’t feel as though they did the story a disservice in any way.

The second issue, “Prophecy and Protocol (Part 2)”, included 26 pages of story with mostly the same creative team, along with a couple of new names added for pencils and editing. Were these changes noticeable? Yeah, I think so. The panels, layouts and action scenes were relatively comparable with the first issue, but the new penciller, Alexandre Nascimento, captured feminine bodies and curves better, as well as adding more definition to characters’ faces and expressions, too. However, the biggest question I had with the art in the second issue came from the very first panel. It seemed like the intention was to sum up the first issue, especially using “previously”, but it only showed some of the key players, not why they were important, and it didn’t relay any of the earlier events, either. It simply didn’t tell enough of the story. Maybe some dialogue would have helped?

Desper’s writing chops were certainly sharpened between issues, though I do think that some of the credit goes to Lee Byron Carver, who was the editor on the second issue. I am familiar with Carver’s work, on both his own book The Company Men and his comic book-focused YouTube channel, Kemosabe Returns. Carver has provided some great insight on his channel that I believe helped Desper. Overall, the second issue of The Mythicals flowed better than the first, I wasn’t taken aback by the dialogue as much despite feeling as though there was more going on.

The second issue brings the reader back to main character Nancy Moon, still at the DOI headquarters, who is learning a more about her coworkers, how most supernatural tales are real, what her job will entail, and how the fate of humanity rests on her team. While Nancy is still onboarding with a talking cat, half of the team goes to recruit some retired agents.

The priest/evil being subplot from the first issue returns, as well, and their importance is now laid out. The being is tortuously interrogating the priest, inside what looks like a barn, to learn the location of an item of importance. The priest tries to resist, but straight out of nowhere a grandfather-style clock appears in the barn, the evil being smashes it, pulls a sword from it, and uses it to kill the priest. Where did the clock come from? Was it just hanging out in the barn? It also seemed to appear right next to the men, in the middle of the floor. Art snafu? And if he knew it was in this clock and he needed to summon it, why was he torturing the priest in the first place? I may be a little hung up on this part, but in a story of the supernatural, this may just be another unexplained phenomenon.

Another immersion-breaking moment came when Nancy is learning the history of her new DOI job with the talking cat, Samuel. She has an emotional breakdown, which manifests some of her powers while she is trying to understand how she fits into everything. The breakdown is understandable, but it was sparked by Samuel saying he wanted to show her something. This one thing, after everything else that has happened? The death of her friend, the near loss of her own life, the overwhelming amount of information that has already been presented to her didn’t spark a response before this. However, this situation, however small in the scheme of things, may be intended as another point to show that Nancy’s powers are currently tied to her emotions. It was extreme emotions that brought them out in issue 1 as well, are we slowly zeroing in on a greater understanding of her emotions? Maybe. During this scene, Nancy also seems to be in disbelief that a talking cat can read. That’s the hangup she has in all of this? Maybe these moments are intended to jokes that aren’t really landing with me because I can see where the characters are having their moments of levity at different points. And while some hit the mark, not all of them do. Maybe I need to get a better understanding of the characters personalities to fully grasp their wit?

The next installment of The Mythicals (issue 3, dur…) has already achieved its crowdfunding goal and is currently in-demand on Fund My Comic here. Like last time, the creative team appears to have changed again with the penciler and the editor. Looking at the sample pages, though, the new artist seems pretty adept. I hope that Desper can keep up the momentum with The Mythicals, because his supernatural-filled world does provide some solid escapist entertainment, and the world today could use more of it.

Have you read the first two issues of The Mythicals? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Thanks for reading!

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