Comic Review: Heavy Water

Not every work of fiction is what we might call quality literature, or high art, or some other third term. There are some pretty mindless works out there, but that doesn't mean they don't have value. Part of growing-up and being mature is realizing that sometimes you need brainless fun in your life. Why am I rambling like this? Don't worry, this all relates to what we're reviewing today. We're taking a look at the alternate history comic Heavy Water by Jonathan W.C. Mills and Alberto Muriel.

Heavy Water takes places in a world where Nazi Germany won World War II thanks to being the first nation to develop an atomic bomb. By the 21st century the Nazis rule the world with an iron grip.  Citizens are monitored by security cameras 24/7. Every aspect of their citizen's lives are harshly regimented. Police armed with laser guns roam the streets. It is a dark and grim place, but there is light in the darkness. Ben Haukelid is a mid-level bureaucrat doing his best to get by in life. Then he discovers that his girlfriend Floria is part of an underground resistance movement. The group aims to send someone back to World War II to stop the Nazis from getting the bomb. Before long, Ben is whisked away to Nazi-occupied Norway on a mission to change history.

Jonathan Mills certainly had lofty ambitions for this comic. I read an interview where he described it as Saving Private Ryan meets The Time Machine. At the risk of sounding harsh, it really fails to live up to that pedigree.

Well, first of all let me give credit where it is due. This comic has absolutely gorgeous art. This is certain par for course with Kickstart, the publisher of this and several other great comics; no relationship to Kickstarter.

Anyway, in terms of pacing this comic does reasonably decent. It feels a bit fast at the beginning, but it somewhat evens out. On the other hand, it takes over halfway through the comic before Ben travels back in time. It felt like the scenes in the past could have used a tad more attention than they got. One of my complains with Kickstart is that their books tend to be around 96 pages, but the writers clearly need more room to tell their stories.

Okay, let's talk alternate history. The time travel elements largely center around Knut Haukeld, an actual Norwegian resistance fighter from our world. He led several teams on raids of German heavy water production facilities in Norway. Ben, who is a descendent of Haukeld, is tasked with ensuring that the mission is a success.

Haukeld and his men were certainly brave and heroic; I'm not trying to deny that. However, they weren't the reason the Nazis never got the atomic bomb. Nazi scientists were forbidden from using any physics developed by Jewish physicists. This meant they were forbidden from using anything they might have helped them figured out how to make an atomic bomb. Moreover, Germany had at least eight different atomic bomb programs, all of whom competed against each other, and never cooperated. Nazi Germany didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of developing an atomic bomb.

Despite all of this, many works of alternate history act as though Germany was within fingers-lengths of developing a functioning atomic bomb. As stated about, this could not be further from the truth. Ironically, Imperial Japan was a lot closer to developing an atomic bomb. A few years ago cyclotrons were discovered in Korea. The Japanese put them there to avoid detection, and from recently discovered documents, it appears they might have only been months away from developing a working bomb. Of course, America's atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki put an end to all of that. Curiously, you don't see nearly as many alternate histories where Japan wins World War II, but I digress.

I found the Nazi occupied present day both unrealistic and a tad cliche. It felt a bit more like Nineteen Eighty-Four than a proper alternate history. I'm fairly certain the Nazi would have run into serious problems well before they would have been able to monitor everyone with security cameras 24/7. I also seriously doubt that there would be flying cars. Besides the technological limitations, there's way too many things that could go wrong as far as driving.

We also get hints that Norwegian has become a dead language. Yeah, considering how much the Nazis fetishized Nordic culture, there's no way that would happen. The comic opens in the city of New London, but appears to be built on the remains of old London. Slight problem, as it is mentioned that the Nazis nuked London. Shouldn't radiation be an issue?

Okay, so we've established that this comic has a lot going against it. So why do I still recommend it? Well, it is still enjoyable, in a turn-off your brain sort of way, as a science fiction action story. If you take it for what it is, it isn't half-bad as a action adventure comic. I got to learn about Knut Haukeld, so it wasn't completely without merit. Plausibility doesn't necessarily mean more entertaining. For example, Fatherland is generally considered a more plausible Nazi Victory scenario, but I always found it a tad boring. Heavy Water ain't high art, but it's reasonably entertaining.

Well, I think that covers everything I wanted to discuss about Heavy Water. I will see you guys next time.

Heavy Water