If you want a colourful, pop-art style, you will not be disappointed with “Cosmic Detective.” The visual world building leaves you wanting to dive further into this alternative universe. I love that the main detective has a family, which seems like a strange thing to point out, but it’s something I don’t come across in many detective graphic novels. However, the plot leaves a lot to be desired. There were some scenes that didn’t add anything to the story and other scenes that were repetitive. The biggest example is when the detective is ‘transported’ somewhere, which takes up multiple pages. We really only need to see the act once to get the idea and then save the other pages for developing that plot. I was admittedly quite confused when the name of the ‘beings’ the detectives organization is investigating is blacked out in the dialogue. Naturally, blacking out the name can add a sense of mystery, but at about the halfway point I thought we were given the name, yet the blank spaces remained until the end. It ends up becoming less effective and creates a disconnect with the reader. Overall, there’s a ton of promise in the visuals, but the plot needs to be fleshed out more.

This was an interesting graphic novel, but it's not something I'm normally into. Not sure if it was the writing style or how it seemed like the main character was jumping all over the place it made me confused and really uninterested after a while.

Drawing inspiration from the work of Jack Kirby (New Gods), Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, Essex County) and Matt Kindt (Mind MGMT, Dept H) join with artist David Rubin to create their own twist on a Dark City like science fiction noir. A god like being is found murdered. An unnamed detective is tasked to solve it, but will his investigation cost him his sanity, his family or everything?

The art, by David Rubin alone is a treat, with many full page spreads and effort given to embed sound queues into the narrative (for example he eats an apple on the first page and we're provide chewing and biting noises). Rubin's style reminds me strongly of Paul Pope's (Battling Boy) This is a world where barriers are fluid, our detective is able to transport by smoking a magical cigarette, to enter portals embedded in his car. He carries a phone that can serve to stun the uncooperative or function as a smart phone communicating or sending information to others in his organization. Scenes bounce from hotels, bars, cafes in town, to secluded rural safe houses, the organization's resources like a secret filled archive, forensic lab or meeting space and a well-known American landmark.

Plot wise, it's a combination of Kindt's muse of getting to the deeper conspiracy behind the murder or disappearance with the hidden otherworldly nature of reality that is a common theme in Lemire's work. That said, it is also a little more straightforward to some of Kindt's work where the reader doesn't have to puzzle out as much for themselves. For Lemire it is not as directly spooky and twisted, but is cosmically troubling, like a Galactus. More Underwater Welder, less Gideon Falls.

It is a standalone volume, at least at present, and like any series by these creators, rewards rereading with attention paid to smaller details.

Definitely a slow enjoyable read for me. I was trying to connect the pieces. This read in some parts like a What-If debate. The artwork is crisp. The two pages definitely work the vibe of the energy and story.
This story is basically future things where the main character is trying to investigate a weird and interesting murder. Which happily then sets you in the motion of webs of questions.
I just reviewed Cosmic Detective by Jeff Lemire, Matt Kindt & David Rubín. #CosmicDetective #NetGalley

Review of Cosmic Detective by Jeff Lemire, Matt Kindt, and David Rubin

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In a filthy and unnamed city, a rough and equally unnamed Detective investigates a murder. Along the way he finds out more than he bargained for and it changes his entire life.

This was a very interesting graphic novel. Interesting in that it kept me interested and mostly engaged the whole time, but was very, very weird. Again, not in a bad way, just not my typical go-to story.

The artwork was absolutely beautiful, I love the bright colors and the consistency throughout. It's not a pretty city, but the artist make it look like it is in their own style. I love the unique way many of the panels were laid out to convey movement.

The story was a bit confusing with the blocked out words, but I got the just of it through context. I still feel like I don't know much about the characters, but this is presumably just the beginning of the story.

Overall a good read, but not my favorite genre. If you like Watchmen, you would probably enjoy this too

ARC provided by NetGalley

The art in this graphic novel is just phenomenal. It's honestly worth the read for the art alone. The story itself is also interesting, but that art is out of this world.

The excellent art by David Rubin blessed this good cosmic detective type story with a sense of magic and wonder. Dark, gritty, but also brightly coloured and saturated in an almost disturbing manner, Rubin brings his surreal best to the script.

I enjoyed the flow of the story, the way the mystery unravels, and the 'into the rabbit hole' type experience the protagonist is put through, as he tries to understand the unfathomable.

A well told, well made comic that deserver your attention!

eARC provided by Image Comics

Cosmic Detective is a sci-fi mystery graphic novel. The art is a creative neon explosion that had my eyes soaking in each page. The illustrations along with the story pulled me all the way through to the end. Never being able to guess what was going to happen next was part of the fun. Some vibes:

• Blade Runner
• Detective Noir
• Cyberpunk
• Fifth Element

Cosmic Detective is a science fiction Noir police procedural from the imaginations of comic powerhouses Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt. The result is something akin to a cross between Ray Chandler and Ray Bradberry. The story begins as a detective investigates a death that shouldn’t be possible. He is part of a shadow organization that investigates and cleans up after beings that are so powerful that they remain nameless through most of the story, their name literally redacted from the text with black boxes instead of print. The art is psychedelic, the mood swinging from Noir to cyberpunk. The plot may be a bit trite, but the execution is perfect.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the early read. Jeff Lemire's story is very creative and new. Not to mention, Matt Kindt's art is spot on for this story.

Original graphic novel, an epic science fiction mystery that asks: when a God is murdered, who solves the crime?

Gorgeously draw to feel like an alien landscape. Did not expect the ending but it was a fitting conclusion to a mind-bender of a story.

Cosmic Detective
Jeff Lemire, Matt Kinda and David Rubin
Thank you to Netgalley for a copy for an honest review
Cosmic Detective is ok, the story and artwork really do compliment each other, the colours were bright and cool. The story is a little confusing at times but ok.
I would recommend it but it really didn't hook me
Rating 3 stars

The Cosmic Detective is an adventure of the typical detective on a journey to solve what we originally believe is a missing person. What in fact we’re looking for are missing answers to existential questions. Do we really matter? The detective comes off as likeable, a family man, maybe not the brightest bulb in the pack, but still able enough to follow a clue with a level of technology that uses car trunks for doorways into other places. It’s imaginative to say the least but anticlimactic in its ending with a switch of who is the detective in the end and pushing the original old style “gumshoe” back onto family values to save his sanity and his family. You can’t hold it against him, but then again for the sake of art and the story you can hold it against him. I was a bit perturbed by the blacked-out reference to the enemy. In this and age you don’t know if it’s some word that might offend one group or another or it’s a word/language/alphabet that’s practically untranslatable or it’s so holy to speak it might shatter the universe itself or it’s just old-fashioned censorship. I’m nosey and nosey minds want to know. Honestly, it’s a good read and the art is good as well. I’d recommend it if you need a good old dose of existentialism in these days of existentialism. It’s not hopeless, but it’s not hopeful either. Go read it.

Science Fiction meets noir in the Cosmic Detective as the often-bloodied detective hunts down clues to find out the who, why, and how when a god is murdered.

The combined talents of Jeff Lemire, Matt Kindt, and David Rubin make this a riot of color and action and a great start to a new series.

Although this story was interesting to look at and always a quality tale from Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt, I coudn't get into it.

I did not enjoy the violence, and the style of art only made the gruesome moreso. The family/humanizing side of the story took me so much by suprise I had to re-read, and it didn't gel for me.

The art is really cool but I feel like there wasn’t quite enough plot. So much happened, one thing after another, and I felt like it wasn’t always a logical next step. Definitely an interesting story for what it was.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

3 stars

I think it might be time to admit that Lemire is just not for me. The concepts for his work always catch my eye, but ultimately the execution doesn't end up working for me. I suppose I expected a Detective trying to solve the death of a god to be something that had a little more time to marinate. Nothing really felt like it had much time to develop, maybe because we were trying to keep to the beats of a detective story maybe because of the page constraints of a graphic novel. I think with just a little more time spent with some of the weirder elements of this it could have been really amazing, right now the art does a lot of the heavy lifting. There are some interesting moments though, if you're into the authors though this will probably be a hit.

The best thing I can say about Cosmic Detective is that the artwork and the storyline complement each other nicely. I loved the colors, which were vibrant and really helped set the tone. Unfortunately, I found the plot development and pacing to be problematic. Not only did it seem like there were some unexplained leaps in the story, but also that some included scenes didn't further the plot. For example, I would have loved for the bar scene (neat but unnecessary) to be cut and those pages used to more explicitly develop the Detective's backstory or the agency's duplicity. Or something.

One thing I did kind of like was the ending, mostly because it had a flipped sort of "The Most Dangerous Game" vibe, and that happens to be my all-time favorite short story. Of course, I recognize that as a very niche reaction, and I got no sense that that specific evocation was intentional, just happenstance based on my previous reading. Overall, Cosmic Detective left me disappointed because the idea behind the novel was clever—cosmic noir with a "they live among us" trope—but in the end, the concept was never fully realized.

Cosmic Detective is a neat little sci-fi mystery story that clearly gives nods to Jack Kirby, superhero comics, and noir detectives. The setting is vivid and interesting, and the mystery is engaging. Ultimately, a few of the concepts seemed derivative, but not necessarily in a bad way; it's hard to be original when there's so much material out there, and it felt like an homage or a rework rather than a copy! As a school librarian, I couldn't put this in our library due to cursing and sexual content, but it would be a good fit for a public library. I enjoyed the read, and would read more from these creators!