Writer & Artist: Faith Erin Hicks
Colorist: Lee Loughridge
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Cover Artists: Faith Erin Hicks & Lee Loughridge; Joshua Middleton; Guillem March; Martin Simmonds; Gabriel Rodriguez; Skottie Young; Peter Smith; Clayton Crain
Designer: Jillian Crab
Editor: Alex Antone
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $4.99
Release Date: March 26, 2025
One day, Helen’s mother takes her to her father’s archeological dig. The seven-year-old sees the relentless pace of the excavations and the callous way her father disregards accidents. Helen doesn't understand why people must work so hard beneath the blazing sun. But her father’s hunger for history proves infectious. How might picking up a piece of broken pottery influence Helen’s life? Let’s grab our picks and shovels, leap into Universal Monsters: The Mummy #1, and find out!
Story
The girl becomes a teen. Yet she still calls Thebes home. The ancient capital of Egypt hums with life. People from other countries visit to tour its historic sites. Once, pharaohs ruled Egypt as gods. In 1921, the British dominated the Cradle of Civilization. Their families form the cultural elite, while the natives are the servant class. Helen wasn’t aware of this social divide when she played with the children of her father’s workers. But now, it separates her from the teens she identifies with.
In Universal Monsters: The Mummy #1, Helen hates the British school she attends. She disdains her fellow students' airs and graces. Egyptian teens hum with vitality by comparison. Although her parents disapprove, she hangs out with them. Her childhood friend Iahmesu accuses her of slumming. But Essam returns her interest. Helen may only be sixteen, but she's not too young to fall in love.
In Faith Erin Hicks’s story, Helen dwells in the eye of a storm. One of her father’s archeologists ignores instructions when he opens a box. Once he sees a scroll, he can't resist translating it. But words have power. His incantation not only revives the past but awakens something inside Helen. Perhaps it was there all along. Or maybe it entered her nine years ago when she picked up the broken shard of pottery lying in the sand.
Art
Faith Erin Hicks portrays the grandeur of Thebes in Universal Monsters: The Mummy #1. The ancient ruins and monuments greet visitors sailing along the Nile. Young Helen frowns as she clutches her mother's hand and walks beneath a servant's umbrella. When Helen gazes up with questioning eyes, her mother's eyelids cover hers. The Egyptian woman smiles when observing her British husband overseeing the excavation in his suit and fedora. Despite the hand on her shoulder, Helen looks worried as she watches the straining equipment.
Lee Loughridge paints the evening purple, blue, green, and peach. Helen sits with the locals on an Egyptian rooftop. Iahmesu sits primly, wearing earrings, three necklaces, and a scarf over her hair. Helen's posture is more relaxed, and she smiles more readily than on that hot day nine years ago. When she and her friends visit a nightclub, orange, magenta, and yellow fill the background as Helen and Essam dance. Later, they run off to the green excavations. She and Essam share smiles as they hold hands while standing upon a blue dune. Essam’s fez looks more tan than red beneath the glowing moon. Still, fezzes are cool.
Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou incants uppercase black letters into white dialogue balloons. The letters grow bold for inflection and raised voices. Smaller, lowercase words indicate lowered voices. Words also inhabit colored narrative boxes or hover in the air. Music notes flow along ethereal streams. Giant words fill a jagged river dividing an archeologist’s yellow and brown office from Helen’s blue-and-green moonlight idyll. Blue words inhabit pale blue cloudy balloons. Yet they belong to more than one person in Universal Monsters: The Mummy #1. Thanks to Image Comics, Skybound, and Universal for providing a copy for review.
Final Thoughts
Helen belongs to two worlds. While she despises her British heritage, she tries to meet her father's expectations. Helen hungers for acceptance among her childhood friends. Yet Helen thinks nothing of withdrawing the favors she grants. Nor does Helen worry about getting her friends into trouble. When an unsuspecting archeologist awakens an ancient entity, Helen discovers why she doesn't belong in Universal Monsters: The Mummy #1.
Rating 9.5/10
For more cover art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
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