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Saladin Ahmed and Sami Kivelä’s Abbott: 1973 picks up where the volume leaves off, following Abbott on her one-woman war against the evil Umbra.
While many readers associate author Saladin Ahmed with his work on Marvel’s Miles Morales: Spiderman, he is also responsible for an impressive body of creator-owned work and recently launched the Substack imprint Copper Bottle. Artist Sami Kivelä (Undone By Blood) and Ahmed co-created Abbott, a Boom Studios! series following a reporter named Elena Abbott with magical abilities. In January, Abbott: 1973 #1 hit comic stands, and October saw the release of its first trade paperback. The series proves to be as entertaining as ever.
Abbott: 1973 finds Elena struggling to recover from the traumatic events of 1972. While maintaining her relationship with girlfriend Amelia, Elena struggles to get along with the sexist new owner of the paper she works for and tries to cover a monumental election that could lead to Detroit’s first black mayor. As she attempts to deal with all of these challenges, she finds evidence of evil magic known as the Umbra all over the city. It turns out that a wizard, known as the hunter, has been tasked with killing her. With the help of her former husband and her estranged brother, Abbott tries to protect her loved ones and Detroit.
Ahmed does an excellent job of weaving the social tensions of 1970s Detroit into this magical story. Elena combats racism and sexism around every corner, often from the same sources that attack her with evil magic. This antagonistic climate underscores just how isolated Elena and her compatriots are in their many battles and makes her victories all the more satisfying. Elena’s stubborn devotion to the people in her life and to her reporting makes her easy to root for overall. But, similarly to the first Abbott series, all of Ahmed’s characters are compelling and appear to have rich inner lives well worth exploring in Abbott: 1973.
Sami Kivelä captures the gritty beauty of Detroit perfectly. His knack for the landscape helps to make even the simplest scenes engaging. Sequences that focus on Abbott’s investigative reporting are just as visually engaging as action-packed, magic-oriented scenes. Kivelä’s depictions of magical possession are particularly striking. Kind, trustworthy characters transform into ghoulish aggressors in ways that are terrifying. The subtle ways he initiates each transformation keeps the audience guessing about which characters are secretly being controlled by the Hunter and contribute to the overall tense tone of Abbott: 1973.
Colorist Mattia Iacono uses a gorgeous collection of purple and pink hues to distinguish forces of evil magical origin from the rest of the city, which adds to the already visually fascinating landscape of the story.
Abbott: 1973 is an exciting story about the importance of truth and the destructive power of hatred. As a reporter and a magician, Elena Abbott has all the makings of an iconic hero, whose family and friends are some of the best sidekicks in recent memory. While many of the themes will seem fairly familiar to readers of Abbott, this new chapter in Elena’s life has plenty of surprises in store for everyone and is thoroughly entertaining.
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