Olympus

By Geoff Johns, Kris Grimminger, Butch Guice and Dan Brown

“I thought coming to Europe was going to be fun. Instead, we’re touring museums. Listening to lectures. Taking notes. Professor Walker’s dragged us to ruin after ruin. Isn’t there anything new around here?”

Museums… still the number one way to ruin a vacation.

Olympus wastes no time in turning a nice day out on the boat into a nightmare. As a group of explorers are met with some unwanted guests…and their boat crashes into some trouble… just when they finally got a sweet score from the water below too!

Writers Geoff Johns (Green Lantern, Superman) and Kris Grimminger look to give their readers a quick history lesson as a teacher, along with her students, ends up on an island with a few ancient secrets (oh, and they’re accompanied by pirates). The shipwrecked crew quickly finds out that the island they’re on is filled with mythological creatures, and the interaction between the students and the pirates make for some priceless scenes, and these kids seem pretty brave compared to the gun-wielding criminals.

The modern take on the characters entering into this mythological realm gives Johns and Grimminger the opportunity to introduce some funny lines into the text, one of which comes from the leader of the pirates after another encounter with a familiar creature, “I may not be as well read as you guys, but I saw Clash of the Titans – cour’se he didn’t use a shotgun.”

The inclusion of the mythological creatures gives artist Butch Guice and colorist Dan Brown a lot of room to play around in as well. It seems this muddled crew can’t catch a break as a giant sea serpent rampages after them only moments after they barely escape a cyclops… which leads us into the discussion on artwork! The introduction of the gigantic sea creature (Gyrados?) comes as a surprise as the previous foe is met with a fate similar to Jurassic World – never stand near the water where the keep the giant sea monster! The scene were the monster first emerges shows the once huge cyclops looking quite small in comparison. Brown colors the sea beast a vibrant looking turquoise as it emerges from the light blue ocean. The cyclops matches the colors of the land with his dark orange skin against the tan colors of the sandy terrain. All this happens while everyone else is trying to make a mad run for the hills! What a day to go deep sea diving huh?

A new take on the mythology of ancient Greece gives Olympus a lot of room to explore the creatures we’ve come to  know pretty well. Could see this as being a movie mix between Percy Jackson and those cool episodes of Justice League where they all went to Themyscira… except instead of powers they have guns (but Batman still has the greate$t power of all).