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The Massive #3-5
The Massive, Volume 2
The Crash was only the beginning. What remains of civilization is being obliterated by a series of cataclysmic events. The truth about the identity of Captain Israel's companion Mary, which began as a faint signal, grows louder-and she's seemingly connected to it all. This second volume of The Massive Library Edition collects The Massive issues #16-#30 in a beautiful hardcover.
392 pages, Hardcover
First published November 22, 2016
1 person is currently reading
37 people want to read
About the author
Brian Wood
1,180 books963 followersBrian Wood's history of published work includes over fifty volumes of genre-spanning original material.
From the 1500-page future war epic DMZ, the ecological disaster series The Massive, the American crime drama Briggs Land, and the groundbreaking lo-fi dystopia Channel Zero he has a 20-year track record of marrying thoughtful world-building and political commentary with compelling and diverse characters.
His YA novels - Demo, Local, The New York Four, and Mara - have made YALSA and New York Public Library best-of lists. His historical fiction - the viking series Northlanders, the American Revolution-centered Rebels, and the norse-samurai mashup Sword Daughter - are benchmarks in the comic book industry.
He's written some of the biggest franchises in pop culture, including Star Wars, Terminator, RoboCop, Conan The Barbarian, Robotech, and Planet Of The Apes. He’s written number-one-selling series for Marvel Comics. And he’s created and written multiple canonical stories for the Aliens universe, including the Zula Hendricks character.
From the 1500-page future war epic DMZ, the ecological disaster series The Massive, the American crime drama Briggs Land, and the groundbreaking lo-fi dystopia Channel Zero he has a 20-year track record of marrying thoughtful world-building and political commentary with compelling and diverse characters.
His YA novels - Demo, Local, The New York Four, and Mara - have made YALSA and New York Public Library best-of lists. His historical fiction - the viking series Northlanders, the American Revolution-centered Rebels, and the norse-samurai mashup Sword Daughter - are benchmarks in the comic book industry.
He's written some of the biggest franchises in pop culture, including Star Wars, Terminator, RoboCop, Conan The Barbarian, Robotech, and Planet Of The Apes. He’s written number-one-selling series for Marvel Comics. And he’s created and written multiple canonical stories for the Aliens universe, including the Zula Hendricks character.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 4, 2023
Review of the whole series
I loved it. The Massive is an excellent post-apocalyptic comic book series that revolves around environmental themes. It’s set in a world where a global environmental catastrophe known as The Crash has occurred and drastically changed the world. Humanity witnessed wildfires raging, urban decimation, and complete global communication blackouts. Water became scarce. Troubles everywhere.
The story centers on the crew of an environmental activist ship called The Kapital, led by Captain Callum Israel. The crew embarks travels across the oceans, searching for their lost sister ship, The Massive, which went missing during the chaos of The Crash.
The series addresses pressing environmental issues like and explores the consequences of humanity’s abuse of the planet. It touches on topics of climate change, overconsumption, and the impact of human activity on marine ecosystems. It presents them maturely and thoughtfully, without getting too emo.
I loved how well-developed and interesting all characters are. The crew members of The Kapital are diverse, flawed, and relatable, each dealing with their own personal struggles amid the global crisis.
Kristian Donaldson and Garry Brown’s detailed illustrations capture the desolate post-apocalyptic world and the harsh realities faced by the characters. Their art is simple, minimalistic, and elegant.
Many post-apocalyptic stories focus on action and survival, and readers love them for it. The Massive does more and adds layers of complexity by addressing political, social, and philosophical issues. It avoids black-and-white portrayals. In this world, the line between heroes and villains is often blurred. And the reality is ambiguous.
Is it perfect? No. Some readers will find “The Massive” too slow; It frequently gets introspective and focuses on character development rather than constant action. I appreciated the depth and substance of this story, but others may find them tiring.
Overall, The Massive is an outstanding comic series focused on environmental themes. It provides a complex and character-driven story and a more thoughtful take on the post-apocalyptic genre. If you enjoy stories that make you reflect on the impact of our actions on the world, give it a shot.
I loved it. The Massive is an excellent post-apocalyptic comic book series that revolves around environmental themes. It’s set in a world where a global environmental catastrophe known as The Crash has occurred and drastically changed the world. Humanity witnessed wildfires raging, urban decimation, and complete global communication blackouts. Water became scarce. Troubles everywhere.
The story centers on the crew of an environmental activist ship called The Kapital, led by Captain Callum Israel. The crew embarks travels across the oceans, searching for their lost sister ship, The Massive, which went missing during the chaos of The Crash.
The series addresses pressing environmental issues like and explores the consequences of humanity’s abuse of the planet. It touches on topics of climate change, overconsumption, and the impact of human activity on marine ecosystems. It presents them maturely and thoughtfully, without getting too emo.
I loved how well-developed and interesting all characters are. The crew members of The Kapital are diverse, flawed, and relatable, each dealing with their own personal struggles amid the global crisis.
Kristian Donaldson and Garry Brown’s detailed illustrations capture the desolate post-apocalyptic world and the harsh realities faced by the characters. Their art is simple, minimalistic, and elegant.
Many post-apocalyptic stories focus on action and survival, and readers love them for it. The Massive does more and adds layers of complexity by addressing political, social, and philosophical issues. It avoids black-and-white portrayals. In this world, the line between heroes and villains is often blurred. And the reality is ambiguous.
Is it perfect? No. Some readers will find “The Massive” too slow; It frequently gets introspective and focuses on character development rather than constant action. I appreciated the depth and substance of this story, but others may find them tiring.
Overall, The Massive is an outstanding comic series focused on environmental themes. It provides a complex and character-driven story and a more thoughtful take on the post-apocalyptic genre. If you enjoy stories that make you reflect on the impact of our actions on the world, give it a shot.
April 24, 2024
(Zero spoiler review)
Sweet zombie Jesus. The money I spent on these two library editions. And to think I got something of a good deal at the time, too. A fool and his money and all that.
This was essentially a mirror image of the first volume. Started out decent. Descended into absolute farce, and took a bloody long time doing it. Quite how Brian Wood stretched this thing out as long as he did mystifies me. Perhaps his pen name should be Reed Richards.
I still didn't give an ass about a single one of the characters. They were all dull as cold dishwater. And the ending. God help me, the ending. About the only good thing I could say about it is that it actually ended. Everything else was a mess. At least we got the same artist throughout this collection, even if his style did produce some very mixed results.
I'm so disappointed in this, because the premise was so interesting. It needed to get me to part with some serious cheddar to get it, after all. A kind of water world meets Sea Shepherd. I was down and then some for that. What we got was more a days of our lives on the open sea, with about as much logical consistency and competent writing as your average Teletubbies episode.
This was like going to a kick ass theme park but being forced to ride the Merry Go Round all day, when all you really want to do is ride the roller coaster till you barf and try and hit on the cute girl selling the fairy floss. Weak sauce, bro. Weak sauce. 2/5
OmniBen.
Sweet zombie Jesus. The money I spent on these two library editions. And to think I got something of a good deal at the time, too. A fool and his money and all that.
This was essentially a mirror image of the first volume. Started out decent. Descended into absolute farce, and took a bloody long time doing it. Quite how Brian Wood stretched this thing out as long as he did mystifies me. Perhaps his pen name should be Reed Richards.
I still didn't give an ass about a single one of the characters. They were all dull as cold dishwater. And the ending. God help me, the ending. About the only good thing I could say about it is that it actually ended. Everything else was a mess. At least we got the same artist throughout this collection, even if his style did produce some very mixed results.
I'm so disappointed in this, because the premise was so interesting. It needed to get me to part with some serious cheddar to get it, after all. A kind of water world meets Sea Shepherd. I was down and then some for that. What we got was more a days of our lives on the open sea, with about as much logical consistency and competent writing as your average Teletubbies episode.
This was like going to a kick ass theme park but being forced to ride the Merry Go Round all day, when all you really want to do is ride the roller coaster till you barf and try and hit on the cute girl selling the fairy floss. Weak sauce, bro. Weak sauce. 2/5
OmniBen.
February 17, 2020
What a great surprise this series was! I started reading it because I enjoy the writers other comics, it became my favourite.
The story is a unique spin on the end of the world in this environmentalist age. It's about love, family, revenge, death.. everything, the human condition. But, the pace is longitudinally focused, the characters get room to let you know who they are, they're motivations and characteristics as people stay consistent and feel authentic.
It challenges comic book norms, gun fights are few and far between, the hero gets his butt kicked regularly, and it's a truly multicultural story with a worldwide view.
The Massive is very mature, I felt like I was reading a very good novel, the great art was a bonus.
The story is a unique spin on the end of the world in this environmentalist age. It's about love, family, revenge, death.. everything, the human condition. But, the pace is longitudinally focused, the characters get room to let you know who they are, they're motivations and characteristics as people stay consistent and feel authentic.
It challenges comic book norms, gun fights are few and far between, the hero gets his butt kicked regularly, and it's a truly multicultural story with a worldwide view.
The Massive is very mature, I felt like I was reading a very good novel, the great art was a bonus.
February 24, 2017
Hmm...that took a turn I did not expect. Much better than the first half. An interesting completion to the series. I am glad it is not any longer.
Cool concept.
Cool concept.
November 7, 2025
Plot:
In the second hardcover volume we get the real background story of Mary and how that impacts the story.
We also get some story of a character name Bors which seems to have previous history with Ninth Wave.
We finally find the Massive (I don't think this is a spoiler).
The Positives:
- We found the sister boat The Massive. Finally!
- Now we know what Mary is.
- We got an ending. It took to long to tell this story, thank god it finished
- The art is still great and with only 1 artist during the whole story
The Negatives:
- Finding the sister boat was the main plot. But this moment did not felt that important, it was thrown in the middle of an issue and in the end the reason for why it was so hard to find it was... underwhelming
- Mary backstory fits the plot and the preachy nature of the writer. But honestly I was a little disappointed. This story did not need anything supernatural related and yet, here we are.
- There was too much build up for such a mediocre ending
Summary:
I really expected more of this book. The writing on the first half was amazing and the build up was nice, but a little slow. The pay out should have been greater.
This story could have been told in 10 issues instead of like 30.
It was a decent book, but my expectations were higher.
In the second hardcover volume we get the real background story of Mary and how that impacts the story.
We also get some story of a character name Bors which seems to have previous history with Ninth Wave.
We finally find the Massive (I don't think this is a spoiler).
The Positives:
- We found the sister boat The Massive. Finally!
- Now we know what Mary is.
- We got an ending. It took to long to tell this story, thank god it finished
- The art is still great and with only 1 artist during the whole story
The Negatives:
- Finding the sister boat was the main plot. But this moment did not felt that important, it was thrown in the middle of an issue and in the end the reason for why it was so hard to find it was... underwhelming
- Mary backstory fits the plot and the preachy nature of the writer. But honestly I was a little disappointed. This story did not need anything supernatural related and yet, here we are.
- There was too much build up for such a mediocre ending
Summary:
I really expected more of this book. The writing on the first half was amazing and the build up was nice, but a little slow. The pay out should have been greater.
This story could have been told in 10 issues instead of like 30.
It was a decent book, but my expectations were higher.
July 28, 2019
5
I thought the first volume had promise and slightly fell away in terms of storytelling. The central premise of finding The Massive was an interesting concept for the mythology based world of the series. Time and time again I felt the series was struggling to sustain a coherent story, but it was all leading to this and in the end, I felt the series delivered. Brian Wood has been a main stay in my library and I have many more books to devour over the next coming months, DMZ is on the very top.
Why the 5?
Volume 2 delivers and it expands the world building to climatic effect. There are moments in the latter half of the volume that will drop your jaw in utter shock. The Massive becomes everything the creative set out to create and I for one was along for the ride. It is a shame that volume 1 wasn't a stronger volume, but treating this volume as an independent section, I felt it delivered. Brian Wood might lend his name to some odd titles over at Dark Horse, but the self created books are his strength. Great conclusion and I will now wait a few months before jumping back on board for the prequel series.
I thought the first volume had promise and slightly fell away in terms of storytelling. The central premise of finding The Massive was an interesting concept for the mythology based world of the series. Time and time again I felt the series was struggling to sustain a coherent story, but it was all leading to this and in the end, I felt the series delivered. Brian Wood has been a main stay in my library and I have many more books to devour over the next coming months, DMZ is on the very top.
Why the 5?
Volume 2 delivers and it expands the world building to climatic effect. There are moments in the latter half of the volume that will drop your jaw in utter shock. The Massive becomes everything the creative set out to create and I for one was along for the ride. It is a shame that volume 1 wasn't a stronger volume, but treating this volume as an independent section, I felt it delivered. Brian Wood might lend his name to some odd titles over at Dark Horse, but the self created books are his strength. Great conclusion and I will now wait a few months before jumping back on board for the prequel series.
April 6, 2023
Brilliant conclusion to this series. Funnily enough, the Mary storyline that put this firmly in my genre wheelhouse was the part that was both the most intriguing but the overall story didn't need it.
August 19, 2020
Writing: 3
Art: 3
Art: 3
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews