Review: The Hypernaturals #8

 

With issue #8, the battle for the survival of the Quantinuum snaps into high gear in Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s Hypernarurals.

As the battle in Side-Space between Sublime (the Hypernaturals’ arch-foe with whom they have been forced to team) and Faux Sublime continues, Thinkwell, Shoal and Clone 21 hover helplessly by as their protective encasement slowly dissolves. As Thinkwell says, exposure to Side-Space would not exactly be “beneficial” for the Hypers … e.g. slow, smothering death!

Meanwhile, the Wolverine-ish Clone 45, his former squeeze Bewilder and Halfshell battle an interesting looking collection of Hyper baddies who still refuse to ID themselves (or even say anything at all) on Repository, the Quantinuum’s museum world.

The baddies, we discover, are headed to secure the Nephilim Fragment, whose origin and purpose remain an enigma. It is suspected the Fragment is part of a mechanism manufactured by a species other than our own.

While some cosmic comics are unfolding their stories slowly and methodically, this issue of Hypernaturals moves fast and furious with DnA’s usual doses of great characterization, sci-fi voodoo and brain-blasting concepts included.

Artists Tom Derenick and Andres Guinaldo maintain the swift and complex quality of the script and, along with co-creator Brad Walker in past issues, have helped DnA create and shape this new universe.

In a medium where some cosmic comics are being used to earn movie credits or remold noble legends better left alone, Hypernaturals is showing us a prime example of how to assemble a new universe the right way, and with cosmic grandeur.