Ultramega #1
- WRITER
- James Harren
- Artist
- James Harren
- Letterer
- Rus Wooton
- Cover Artist
- Dave Stewart, Tradd Moore, James Harren, Attack Peter
- Publisher
- Image Comics
- Price
- 7.99
- Release Date
- 2021-03-17
- Colorist
- Dave Stewart
While sentai stories like Voltron or the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers always have a sort of escapist, wish-fulfillment quality to them, fan-favorite comic book creator James Harren takes those familiar tropes and kaiju scaled action deep into the horror genre in the latest Image Comics/Skybound Entertainment series Ultramega. As the world comes under attack from towering monsters, it's up to three warriors to come together and use their awesome, cosmic abilities to save the day. And with the series launching with an oversized inaugural issue, Harren blends body horror with sentai superhero-smashing fun to create an offbeat genre mash-up that's poised to thrill readers while subverting commonly held expectations of sentai storytelling.
Ultramega takes place in a world where a mysterious plague has swept across the globe and transformed the infected colossal monsters that regularly attack cities. As monsters surface around the world, three individuals showcase cosmic powers that allow them to battle the kaiju directly, growing to the size of their monstrous aggressors. However, as the heroes are confronted with the shocking side effects of their powers and the devastation left in the wake of their attempts to save the day, the Ultramega face their greatest challenge yet, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance as the full scope of the kaiju threat begins to reveal itself.
Harren, who writes and illustrates the series, is definitely no stranger in delivering cataclysmically bombastic action set pieces and delving into unsettling horror and seamlessly blends the two. There is no shortage of sentai action sequences, juxtaposed with the Ultramega contending with the disorienting dread that comes with their awesome abilities. With multiple perspectives introducing readers to a world growing accustomed to kaiju attacks, Harren is juggling a lot of voices but manages to stop the introductory exposition throwing off the pacing of this issue thanks to the added page count. Harren takes full advantage of the additional breathing room to really balance the seemingly disparate threads he's weaving while punctuating the more intimate and horror-oriented moments with the big fight scenes that readers come expecting from the premise.
And Harren more than delivers on the artistic expectations that come with these epic action sequences as well, working with colorist Dave Stewart. There is a punk rock energy to the art style in the fight scenes, between Harren's raw line work and Stewart's vibrant color palette. More than anything else, however, the artwork moves to unsettle, from grotesque David Cronenberg-inspired monster designs to fully grotesque they are to more body horror-oriented moments. In these sequences, Harren's line work becomes visibly more nightmarishly surreal while Stewart's palette shifts from warmer tones to sickly, darker shades that really dial up that sense of unease and creeping dread to match the tonal changes.
It's an important distinction to make that, based on the opening issue, Ultramega is a horror comic that happens to have sentai and kaiju in it. Owing as much to Cronenberg as it does Toho Studios, the comic book series keeps readers off-balance while delivering the monster-mashing thrills that are the major selling point of the title at first glance. Harren leans into his own creative strengths to craft a story that defies conventional genre constraints and pack a solid, intentionally disorienting story in a massively oversized inaugural issue that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.