BIG BANG ADVENTURES #35 – New Comic Review

Big Bang Adventures #35, by Big Bang Comics on 10/25, is a cosmic battle tale that pits a goddess against eldritch horror, when the Old Gods return to decimate Olympus.

Credits:

• Writer: Ray MacKay
• Artist: Ron Williams, John Thompson (Backup)
• Colorist: Shayne Cui
• Cover Artist: Ron Williams (cover A)
• Publisher: Big Bang Comics
• Release Date: October 2025
• Comic Rating: Teen
• Cover Price: $4.95
• Page Count: Teen
• Format: 36

Covers:

Analysis of BIG BANG ADVENTURES #35:

First Impressions:

The opening pages immediately grab your attention with Mercury’s frantic journey across space and time, his desperation made tangible through dynamic motion lines and urgency in the narration. You’re dropped into high stakes instantly. The shift to Empire City’s mundane street fight with the Blue Ox feels like a clever narrative anchor, showing Venus as an active hero before the crisis hits. The tonal whiplash between street-level heroics and cosmic apocalypse is intentional and effective.

Plot Analysis:

Mercury arrives on Earth, injured and desperate, to find Venus helping a cop named Badge defeat the Blue Ox, a seemingly ordinary criminal with enhanced durability. After defeating the monster, Mercury reveals catastrophic news, Olympus has fallen and Jupiter himself lies mortally wounded, defeated by Cthulhu, the most powerful of the Old Gods that ancient pantheons imprisoned centuries ago in the underwater prison of R’Lyeh. Jupiter explains in expository flashback that these Old Gods, including Hastur, Yog-Sothoth, Nyarlathotep, and their master Cthulhu, were an ancient alien race of nihilistic deities that nearly destroyed the universe until Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Mars, Ra, and Thor banded together to defeat them. Cthulhu was rendered comatose and imprisoned deep within Olympus itself, while his brethren were locked away in R’Lyeh, a prison on Earth’s ocean. Jupiter arms Venus with god-forged battle armor and her divine torch, then sends her to stop Cthulhu before he reaches R’Lyeh to free his imprisoned siblings.

Venus tracks Cthulhu to the island, initiating combat by surrounding the massive creature with rings of Olympian fire. The monster dismisses her efforts as trivial and extinguishes her flames with a single wing flap. Undeterred, Venus continues attacking, but Cthulhu’s psychic powers overwhelm her mind, flooding it with visions of cosmic horror and despair. Venus begins to lose consciousness, nearly overcome by the monster’s mental onslaught. Jupiter’s voice reaches her through the water, instructing her to channel the power of love, using the emotional force of all the love that has existed and will exist in the universe. Reinvigorated by this connection to love’s power, Venus rises again and delivers a single, devastating blow powered by this cosmic love energy, sending Cthulhu crashing back into the ocean depths. Cthulhu falls comatose once more, and Venus, gravely wounded but unbroken in spirit, rises from the waters victorious, her unconquerable heart and spirit intact despite the scars she’ll carry for centuries.

Story

Ray MacKay’s script moves briskly, establishing the threat and escalating stakes without wasting panels. The pacing accelerates perfectly from routine street-level heroics to cosmic-level danger. However, the exposition dump where Jupiter recounts the entire history of the Old Gods, while thematically necessary, halts momentum considerably. The dialogue is functional and generally clear, with character voices being distinct enough to follow, though somewhat theatrical in a way that feels appropriate to the genre. The main weakness appears in the climactic battle, where Venus’s psychological overwhelm and recovery happen with little emotional breathing room, making the triumph feel abrupt rather than earned.

Art

Ron Williams delivers dynamic, energetic compositions that sell the scale difference between Venus and Cthulhu. His line work is clean and responsive, particularly during action sequences. The decision to use color flats by Shayne Cui creates a bold, almost retro aesthetic that complements the classic superhero sensibilities. However, the art struggles during the interior exposition scenes, particularly Jupiter’s extended flashback about the Old Gods, where multiple small panels describing cosmic battles feel cramped and lose visual impact. The final confrontation with Cthulhu shows strong composition with the creature looming impossibly large against Venus, but more variation in camera angles during the actual fight sequences would have elevated the visual storytelling.

Characters

Venus is established as dutiful, compassionate, and willing to sacrifice herself for others, which makes her heroic act believable. However, her character arc within this single issue is fundamentally passive, she responds to crises rather than driving them. Jupiter functions primarily as exposition delivery and motivational speaker rather than a fully realized character. Cthulhu works as an overwhelming force of nature and indifference, though MacKay’s choices to make the creature dismissive and arrogant provide his one relatable flaw, that pride allows Venus an opening. The Blue Ox at the start serves mostly as a warm-up opponent and isn’t memorable enough to matter to the larger narrative.

Originality & Concept Execution

Blending Greek mythology with Lovecraftian cosmic horror is not particularly original territory anymore, yet MacKay’s execution of having Venus, the goddess of love, as the singular hope against nihilistic elder entities is thematically resonant and conceptually sound. The idea that love itself becomes a weapon against cosmic despair is genuinely interesting. However, the resolution relies heavily on the mother-god metaphor and emotional power channeling that feels slightly undercooked. The comic doesn’t dig deep enough into why love specifically defeats cosmic nihilism, it asserts it but doesn’t justify it thoroughly enough to make the concept feel truly earned.

Positives

The core concept of love triumphing over cosmic nihilism is thematically sophisticated and provides genuine thematic weight. Ron Williams’ dynamic action sequences, particularly the opening with Mercury and the mid-comic fight between Venus and the Blue Ox, display energetic artwork with excellent use of motion and impact. The pacing of the first half is crisp and immediately engaging, establishing stakes efficiently without feeling rushed.

The visual design of Cthulhu itself, massive and alien, creates genuine menace through scale alone. MacKay’s choice to have Venus get overwhelmed before rising again adds a layer of struggle rather than making her victory feel automatic, even though it ultimately doesn’t resonate as powerfully as intended.

Negatives

The extended flashback sequence explaining the Old Gods’ history and previous defeat kills narrative momentum and resorts to expository dialogue that feels less like character conversation and more like comic book history lesson. The battle itself, which should be the issue’s climax, moves too quickly and lacks the extended visual conflict that would make the combat feel consequential.

Cthulhu’s defeat through love-powered cosmic energy, while thematically appropriate, feels somewhat unearned because the comic doesn’t establish sufficient emotional framework for why this power exists or how it works beyond Jupiter saying it exists. The supporting characters, particularly Badge and the Blue Ox, feel disposable and don’t enhance the narrative. The final page, while attempting to be inspirational, relies on narration telling the reader about Venus’s triumph rather than showing the weight of her struggle through visual storytelling.

Art Samples:

The Scorecard:

Writing Quality (Clarity & Pacing): 2.5/4

Art Quality (Execution & Synergy): 2.5/4

Value (Originality & Entertainment): 1.5/2

Final Thoughts:

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BIG BANG ADVENTURES #35 is an earnest effort at blending mythological and cosmic horror that lands its thematic hook more effectively than it executes its action. You’re getting decent superhero spectacle here, a goddess versus a Lovecraftian monster, solid artwork that captures momentum, and a genuinely interesting message about love’s power against nihilism. The problem is that the execution feels rushed and the battle itself lacks the weight that a confrontation of this magnitude should carry. The flashback exposition dumps hard and the resolution, while conceptually cool, doesn’t feel emotionally justified through the storytelling.

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