By Zack Quaintance — In Abbott 1973 #1 — the start of a sequel series to the excellent 2018 mini Abbott by Saladin Ahmed, Sami Kivela, Mattia Iacono, and Jim Campbell — the creative team has a new luxury: an established premise. Indeed, across the five issues of the first book, they told an engaging story that slowly built a status quo for the titular main character. Abbott is a reporter for a Black newspaper in Detroit, she is formidable, and she is gifted with the supernatural powers of a force called the Lightbringer, which she uses to keep paranormal evil in the city at bay.

Having established all of this allows Abbott 1973 #1 to dive right into a set of interesting changes that will power this new narrative forward. We get an opening page that uses newspaper snippets to let readers know what’s happening in Detroit, 1973. There are headlines about Nixon, abortion, and local landmarks shuttering in Detroit. We get Abbott’s supernatural enemies scheming against here, and, soon enough, we get the news that Abbott’s paper has a new publisher. Essentially, what we get in rapid and organic fashion from this new comic is the foundation for a great new story featuring the main character and comic storytelling elements that made the first series so enjoyable.

That’s all the newness. A lot has stayed the same in this comic, too, which is also to its credit. The artwork from Kivela and Iacono continues to impress. In this era rich with interesting and well-done modern horror comics, many artists do an excellent job interweaving supernatural and realistic imagery, but even in that crowded field, the visuals in Abbott continue to stand out. The supernatural flourishes here are always intricate and interesting, and they seem to grow directly from the characters, evoking their individuality rather than just going for the scare. It’s powerful work, made even more so by the attention to detail that goes into the grounded imagery, be it making sure all of the clothes look suitably right out of 1973, or the amazing job they do capturing local Detroit landmarks. Few books feel as complex and fully-formed as Abbott, and that was true not just of the first mini but of this new series as well. Nobody has backslid into complacency, that’s for sure.

Which brings us to writer Saladin Ahmed’s script. Since the first series has been published, Ahmed has gone on to do quite a bit more for Marvel Comics, helming a pair of monthly series about teen superheroes with The Magnificent Ms. Marvel and Spider-Man: Miles Morales. As a result, I’ve maybe started to think of him only in the context of those titles. This is folly. I knew Ahmed’s work long before he penned his first comics, dating back to his fantastic fantasy novel, Throne of the Crescent Moon, published in 2012. All of that is to say that Ahmed is first and foremost a writer capable of spinning mythos and ghost stories into terrors that feel entirely new. He is at his best in books like Abbott where the threats are ghostly, powerful, and mysterious.

But, once again, that’s only part of what makes Abbott shine. It wouldn’t go nearly so far if Ahmed’s script didn’t do such an excellent job of synching all of that up with the setting, of delivering scenes rich with Detroit-style Coney dogs that really evoke the singularity of the city. Perhaps the most powerful tool, however, is the time period. One page in particular really stood out to me, so effective was it in showing us back then what Abbott would have been up against. Abbott is working late to chase a story about sinister actors using propaganda leaflets to scare white voters into voting against Detroit’s would-be first Black mayor. She is doing everything right as a reporter (my wife and I are both journalists, and I’m happy to report Abbott really captures the job well), when the new publisher comes in and starts to tell her not to smoke and not to cuss, because it’s unbeffiting of a woman. He then puts a hand on her shoulder, and the entire sequence is rendered in chilly, uncomfortable perfection with an inset panel of her face.

It’s really tremendous work, and it’s just one example of the level of complex detail that has gone into Abbott 1973 #1. This book, simply put, is both a great read for those who enjoyed the first series as well as neophytes coming in intrigued by reading a story at the intersections of the paranormal, historical fiction, and the painfully slow progress we’ve made culturally in America.

Overall: Abbott 1973 #1 marks an immediate return to form for one of the best comics of 2018, doing a great job of building upon its established premise to begin a story that feels intriguing, timely, and important as ever. 9.5/10

REVIEW: Abbott 1973 #1

Abbott 1973 #1
Writer: Saldin Ahmed
Artist: Sami Kivela
Colorist: Mattia Iacono
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
In a new series for fans of Something is Killing the Children and Bitter Root, Saladin Ahmed, the visionary writer behind Miles Morales: Spider-Man, and Sami Kivelä, the acclaimed artist behind Machine Gun Wizards, reunite for this Must Read supernatural thriller. Detroit's hardest hitting journalist, Elena Abbott, is trying to make a fresh start at a new newspaper... but her deadly past isn't ready to let go. The city is days away from the historic election of a Black candidate as their new Mayor, but a vicious new group has emerged to destroy him, targeting anyone who supports his campaign or the change he represents. That means Abbott, who discovers the group's connection to a dangerous dark magic, has been targeted for certain death -- unless she embraces her true power as the Lightbringer to save her city.
Price: $3.99
Buy It Digitally: Abbott 1973 #1 on comiXology