3 out of 5

A bit narratively cluttered for a first issue, Sam M. Smith’s Chimera is also a compellingly big swing, effectively pivoting back and forth between what you expect – our leads to turn into the titular creatures, as described in a prologue text scrawl – and, well, them not turning into them.

Intrigue (and lots of guns blazing action) unfolds over the book’s 30+ pages: a squadron of soldiers are headed into Afghanistan in the year 2141 to…

…Well, look, the ‘narrative clutter’ mentioned is the main hitch here: there are two pages of preamble setup the describe this future world of post-war separated nations (e.g. the “Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement”) and black ops teams that are part of other black ops teams and highlighted names of characters who I don’t think actually appear in the issue? The preamble is rather windingly written, and as you go through it, there’s a sense that this can’t all really be necessary context at this point, and sure enough, it’s not. So the soldiers are headed into enemy territory, and even without the up-front knowledge that they have this chimeric ability, you can piece it together: the team is confronted with a murdered member of their pack that lets them know their mighty moprhin’ secret is out, and then it’s a run of action set pieces.

Sam M. Smith delivers this effectively, with dialogue that gives us shades of each character’s personality while staying true to the tone of trained soldiers on a mission. And I’d argue the story is more surprising / effective without all the background rattling around in your brain, especially as the battle ramps up and some twists are tossed in (and we get a sense of the limitation of the chimera powers, ramping up the tension). It’s a good example of doing “big budget” action without sacrificing story.

Artist Jose M. Villarrdel strikes a balance somewhere between big and blocky Image characters and a manga sensibility of layouts and camera angles. Some of the figurework can feel a bit stiff, and the complexity of navigating differently sized characters in fast-paced sequences is maybe above and beyond the artist’s abilities at points, but never in a way that drops you out of the book – the very digital lettering and coloring is maybe more responsible for that, with the former too type-set and flat on the page, and the latter admittedly popping (as in I liked the palette) but maybe without enough contrast / shading for the book’s tone.