The Good
Last issue ended with a literal and metaphorical bang that left the worlds of both deity and mortal reeling and left one very specific mortal with a particularly hollow feeling. Laura’s been a great protagonist throughout this book because she’s not exactly NEW to the world of the gods of culture on Earth, but she’s naive enough to need plenty explained to her whenever she comes into contact with them, and thus having stuff explained to us without it coming off as clunky. This series is also interesting for the fact that, despite being about literal gods walking among humans, it’s got a very grounded, realistic feel which means it doesn’t actually require a great deal of “explanation” and it’s even easy to hop on the book in mid stride. Kieron Gillen has a real knack for writing with a very contemporary, modern sounding voice that generally has a timeless quality to it, like all great writing. This issue isn’t so much a recap or a jumping off point for a new arc as it is a stock-taking. It’s been a month since last issue (a trend that will apparently continue for the entire arc) and the world proceeds, interesting enough, as the real one does at the death of any major celebrity, and that’s perhaps the most interesting thing about it: how Gillen totally, utterly nails that tone and those themes.
Jamie McKelvie’s art has always been a tremendously unique style, like a much more animate, detailed Steve Dillon. The characters all look like they absolutely could exist, lending even more real-world credibility to the book, but it also manages to absolutely never look boring. The characters also have a certain uniformity to their body shape, which McKelvie solves by giving every EXTREMELY unique hair styles and facial features (as well as makeup/face paint for almost all the gods), so it’s never confusing to follow visually. Part of this visual language is also the absolute decadent colors of Matt Wilson, again blending subtlety with overtness in a way that not only makes the gods look extra godlike, but does so without making the mortals of the story look overly plain. But nowhere does the divinity of the gods shine through as much as with the newly introduced pantheon member Inanna. Like a combination of Prince and Ziggy Stardust, only somehow even MORE stunning.
The Bad
As much as I love this book’s visual language, I have to say the one-page spread of Laura’s room gets at the heart of one of my larger problems with the series, and this issue: it sometimes falls a little too much in love with itself to the detriment of its storytelling. An entire page dedicated to stuff we either could have inferred or could already guess about, and in some cases are flat-out told about, is a waste, but it’s more the notion of the book nudging and winking just a LITTLE too hard at the reader about how smug the issue sometimes comes off as. It happens a few times in the issue, but never more clearly than that single page.
The Verdict
Though it can sometimes overpower itself, I am still adoring this book just like one of the gods in it would want me to. The visuals are beautiful, the characters are nuanced and the story it’s telling is part slice of life and part apocalyptic epic without causing a feeling of cognitive dissonance that often comes with such disparate stories and tones. It’s a book with a wide appeal, but it’s also a very, very slow burn (as evidenced by the fact that very, very little actually HAPPENS this issue) but it’s always going somewhere and it’s been worth the trip so far.