Multiple Warheads Book I: Alphabet to Infinity

At least, that’s what the title is on the cover depending on your interpretation of the layout.  The copyright info inside calls this “The Complete Multiple Warheads.”  So this may be all we’re getting of organ-smuggler Sexica and her double-dicked werewolf boyfriend Nikolai and the crazy world they live in.  Or it might not.  Creator Brandon Graham strikes me as being fickle like that and this is virtually a spiritual sequel to his breakout work “King City.”  That means it’s another undiluted showcase for his fearsome imagination which will give you scenes like an assassin coming across a palace walking through a snowcapped canyon and a hot springs battle against a character for whom the loss of a head is only a momentary inconvenience.  Frankly, it was enough for me to sit back and admire the craftsmanship in his art as well as the incredible level of detail he can pack into his deceptively simple style.

“Multiple Warheads” does show that Graham does still have a ways to go before he can craft a engaging narrative on his own.  The plot involves Sexica and Nik leaving town on a meandering road trip while a parallel narrative has the assassin Nura tracking down a bounty with a very special set of organs.  It meanders back and forth between the two, never really amounting to more than a slice-of-life look at a vivid world.  That’ll get you so far with a talent like Graham, but when I got to the end and found the fates of all the characters left completely unresolved I found that I really didn’t care.  His work on “Prophet” may not be as ambitious or insane, but there’s more narrative and character for me to get invested in.  Though you can enjoy “Multiple Warheads” for its art alone it really has nothing to offer beyond that.  

Unless you absolutely hate puns.  If you do, stay the hell away from this book or else it will make your head explode.

Jason Glick