PROJECT PERSEUS #1 REVIEW: CRYPTIDS, TIME TRAVEL AND ONE GLORIOUSLY MESSED-UP MONSTER HUNTER

Okay, Project Perseus #1 had me at monster hunters riding through history, but then Jack Mulqueen and Edison Neo apparently decided normal monster hunting was for cowards. This book throws cryptids, time travel, Antarctic horror, dive-bar violence, questionable life choices and a protagonist named Slug Stephens into the same blender, hits puree and somehow produces a comic with actual heart underneath all the insanity. I went into this expecting a fun genre mashup. I did not expect it to be this damn confident.

The opening drops us into Tierra del Fuego in 1915, complete with hunters, ice, indigenous inhabitants, a ship stranded in the frozen environment and something beneath the water that absolutely does not belong in anybody’s vacation brochure. What impressed me is that the book does not immediately explain how every piece connects. Mulqueen trusts Neo’s visuals and trusts us to follow the breadcrumbs, which is important because once the story begins bouncing through eras and locations, over-explanation would murder the momentum.

Eventually we meet Slug Stephens, and my dude is a beautiful disaster. He has clearly been through some shit, carries himself like somebody who has spent years trying to numb the past, and still possesses enough capability that you understand why people need him when things go sideways. That balance matters. He is funny without becoming a walking punchline, dangerous without becoming an invincible badass, and damaged without Mulqueen begging you to excuse every terrible decision he makes.

Edison Neo is having a blast. The dude gets orcas, monsters, supernatural environments, historical scenes, gunfights, grotesque transformations, underground technology and dive-bar carnage in one issue, yet somehow the book still feels visually consistent. Neo’s characters have expressive faces and exaggerated motion without sliding into parody, which is essential because Project Perseus lives right on that line between legitimate danger and absolute lunacy.

The time-travel concept also gives the visual team permission to keep changing the atmosphere. Kike J. Diaz’s colors help differentiate frozen landscapes, grimy bars, violent supernatural bursts and the strange technology surrounding Perseus without turning each era into a completely different comic. Buddy Beaudoin’s lettering gets to have fun once the action goes bananas, especially around impacts and monster sequences, while still keeping dialogue readable during Mulqueen’s heavier character exchanges.

There is a lot happening here, maybe almost too much for some readers. Mulqueen throws terminology, mythology, organizations, history and personal relationships at you quickly, and the issue absolutely expects you to ride with it before every answer is available. I prefer that to a first issue drowning in exposition, but there are moments where another half-beat of orientation would have helped. Still, the mystery is doing its job because by the final pages I wanted to know exactly what happened between these characters and why history itself appears to be getting dragged into their unfinished business.

Project Perseus #1 feels like somebody smashed pulpy adventure comics, conspiracy fiction and a drunken buddy movie together, then realized halfway through that the characters deserved emotional baggage too. That combination could have become exhausting. Instead, Mulqueen and Neo make the chaos part of the charm. Vault has a wild one here, fam, and if this first issue is any indication, Slug Stephens’ trip through history is going to get significantly weirder before anybody gets anything resembling closure.

CRUSADERS SCORE:
4.5/5

Writer: Jack Mulqueen
Artist: Edison Neo
Colorist: Kike J. Diaz
Letterer: Buddy Beaudoin
Designer: Tim Daniel
Publisher: Vault Comics

On Sale:
9/2/2026
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