When a struggling video game programmer dares to audition for a high-brow secret society in the gaming industry, known as Masterminds, he and a co-worker find themselves entangled in a web of deadly puzzles and games.
The gaming industry is one of the biggest on the planet nowadays, and it’s always growing. So too is the ‘LitRPG’ sub-genre, which was popularised by novels like Ender’s Game and Ready Player One. In Masterminds, a new series from Dark Horse Comics, written by Zack Kaplan along with Stephen Thompson (artist), Thiago Rocha (colours), and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (letters), the road to success comes through a sadistic gamification of real-life.
In Masterminds, we follow Edward, a struggling and troubled, but undeniably talented video game programmer. He’s forced to endure long hours of programming with little reward. He sees himself as under appreciated in his sector. In order to break free of his oppressive job, he decides to try his luck in auditioning for ‘Masterminds’ — a high-brow, cliquey, secret society that enlists the greatest minds in programming and guarantees them success. However, the audition process is far from conventional. Participants must first prove themselves through playing a number of deadly games.
Writer Kaplan masterfully crafts together a narrative that’s not only thrilling and gripping from the get-go, but also provides very-real commentary on the state of the gaming industry nowadays, such as the rise of micro-transactions. It’s exaggerated and dystopian, but it holds a lot of resonance for gamers. It’s clear that Kaplan knows the industry inside-out.
This suspenseful, twisted world of games and puzzles is one that I can’t wait to continue exploring. It’s beautifully realised in huge scale by artist Stephen Thompson, and bursting in colour from Thiago Rocha. The art perfectly captures the stylish neo-noir atmosphere.
There’s a million stories like this out there today. It can be hard to stand out from the crowd, but Masterminds offers a crisp, thrilling, immersive, and often shocking read. To compare it to other media, I’d say it’s a little bit Squid Game and Alice in Borderland, mashed with a hint of Black Mirror, Mr. Robot, and David Fincher’s The Game.
Masterminds gripped me from the first page and wouldn’t let go.
Rating: 5/5
Masterminds #1 debuts August 27, 2025 from Dark Horse Comics.
