God Mode #4

God Mode #4

Keenspot 2019

Written by Mike Rosenzweig & Jason Swoboda

Illustrated by Remy “Eisu” Mokhtar

Lettered by Mike Rosenzweig

Final issue!

A meeting with quirky corporate giant Plexinape in the Big Apple may be all Marceline and Tory need to sell their popular gaming website and cash in on the early days of the dotcom boom. But is selling out what they really want? Probably! Guest starring young Mark Cuban, founder of AudioNet.com.

I’m really hoping that this is just the final issue of this arc and that this story is going to continue. After all, with what we see here it has definitely left the door open for what’s to come next in the saga of these kids' lives. Plus I’m just a fan of this book and the thought that we’re not going to see more makes me sad. The guys have done a magnificent job in getting the reader involved and invested in the lives of these kids and while this is the past, my time in high school, there is still so much room for these kids to grow. Plus what they’ve managed to accomplish with their game and their website is utterly amazing in and of itself so what happens next needs to be told.

I am very much enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceedingly well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter do wonders in bringing us their teenage personalities to life. Teenagers can be the most interesting folks to bring to life too as they’ve got so much going on at that stage in life. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story we’re so fully engaged.

How this is being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen is pretty marvellous to see. What I really like is seeing these kids being so honest with each other as only close friends can be. How we see the layers within this being explored and how the depth, dimension and complexity in the story is shown is well constructed. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is very well achieved.

The interiors here have this mix of traditional comic book style along with this manga feel that creates a wonderful all-ages kind of atmosphere. The linework is clean, crisp and sharp so how we see the varying weights being utilised to create the detail in the work we see throughout the book is remarkably well rendered. The big thing for me is backgrounds, we need to see backgrounds utilised more often, how big or small spaces are always great in setting mood, tone and feel for any given moment. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show an extremely talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work we see is delightfully applied.

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Keenspot is way too low key and we need to be talking more about them, the books they put out and just how much quality storytelling there is to be found here. God Mode is a great example of good, strong and quality storytelling that you may not know about or overlook but I’m here to tell you that you need to be checking this out. With solid writing and great characterisation that’s accompanied by some extremely well rendered interiors this is the kind of book that can inspire you are take you back to a time and place that’s comfortable.