Ordinary Gods #1

Ordinary Gods #1

Image Comics 2021

Written by Kyle HIggins

Illustrated by Felipe Watanabe

Coloured by Frank William

Lettered by Clayton Cowles

The Luminary. The Prodigy. The Brute. The Trickster. The Innovator. Five gods from a realm beyond our own, leaders in the “War of Immortals.” At least, they were—before they were trapped, sent to a planet made into a prison, forced into an endless cycle of human death and reincarnation. Christopher is 22. He's got two loving parents and a 12-year-old sister. He works at a paint store. He's in therapy. He’s one of the Five. Which means, in order to save everyone he cares about, Christopher will have to reconnect with his past lives and do the unthinkable: become a god again.

I have to say this was a much more interesting book than I had thought it was going to be. I wasn’t quite sure how it was going to work and who these Ordinary Gods were going to be but now I kind of have a better idea of who it works. It also makes more sense as to when the opening takes place as well. The opening is rather exciting and really captures the readers attention and makes them want to see and know more, which is precisely what it’s supposed to do.

I have to say that 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 narration, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances that they encounter fleshes them out beautifully. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story, introducing the characters and this world we’re drawn into this in some truly surprising ways.

I like how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story begin to emerge and grow so quickly. The layers contain these unexpected moments, at the mall, and the characterisation that we see of which there are some extremely memorable moments of that too. Whether they work with the main arc or simply swirl around it they add depth and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved perfectly.

I rather like the interiors here as well. There’s something about seeing sections that are done in different styles to depict the mood and emotions or feeling that go with certain kingdoms. It’s nice to see this kind of versatility in an artist and being able to make them so recognisable. The linework is fantastic and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to bring out the detail work is marvellous. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. I do wish we’d see more backgrounds being utilised but still we get nice depth perception, a sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story through the composition in the panels. The colour work is brilliantly rendered as well. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work are impeccably rendered.

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I like the ideas presented in this issue and it’ll be interesting to learn why he was seeing who he was and what he did to see him in the first place, I get what happened just not the specifics and it’s those make all the difference in the world. Also would it be because of who Christopher is that he attempted something? Guess we’ll have to wait and find out. This really is a fabulously written story with stellar characterisation and brilliantly dynamic interiors so with this level of storytelling I can wait to see how the story plays itself out.