Gødland volume 4 and 5 review

Discovering Gødland has been an interesting experience. It’s been one of those series that mostly meets my expectations with the earlier stories but then progresses far differently that what I would have guessed and I end up disappointed. I had a pretty clear idea in my head as to what the story would be in the volumes following the first on but It didn’t go there. I came to Gødland with certain expectations which I build based on the cover art, the feel of some of Casey’s other comics, and the reviews and commentary I’ve read about the series on the internet. The other half of my expectations were founded on what was shown to me in the first volume and the promises of a grand cosmic epic to be told in the rest of the series. Everything seemed to linger. The story needed time to build before it ever even went where it was meant to go. I’m glad the series took it’s time to develop the plot but It shouldn’t have taken two volumes to do it.

The fourth volume Amplified Now! gave me what I’ve been waiting for since the end of first volume, the coming together of different storylines. The story in volumes 4 and 5 exploded compared to the slow crawl that had been established after the first volume. The fourth volume is essentially the turning point in the series. All of them setup is complete and Casey and Scioli simply have the stories turn and collide into one another. I truly did not expect three volumes of setup but that’s what the first 18 issues (yes, 18!) can be summarized. Though the third volume is the result of the previous stories being told, it’s not quite the second phase of the series but it does act as a bridge between the introduction or setup phase and the exploration of the cosmic collective phase. The creators announced the end of the first phase of the series with a few major events, specifically, saying goodbye to some of the more superheroic aspects of the series.

What I really enjoyed about the fourth volume was that it delivered. It took a long time for the story to get to the point where Adam fights with the Triad. Sure, he found plenty of other aliens before them but the Triad has been present in the comic for several issues before any direct conflict occurred with other characters previously established in the series. It was the same thing for other promises, like how it was strongly suggested that Neela would also become cosmically aware. It took several issues for it to happen and then it took a few issues more before we got to see her in action and to see her interact with Adam. It wasn’t enough to have alien beings with Kirby-crackle to make Gødland a great series. It can’t all be cosmic imagery, there also has to be a story and fro this kind of story, cosmic superheroics, there has to be conflict. We’ve had plenty of action but the conflict became sparse after the first volume. I wanted to see these supreme beings interacting with each other and taking part in huge adventures and changing the world and the universe. Thankfully all I had to do was stick around and wait for space aliens to cause havoc in Las Vegas.

If volume four was a step in the right direction, the first few pages of the fifth volume “Far Beyond the Bang!” clearly announced that we had arrived at our destination. It starts with Adam blasting off into space. Finally! This is literally a moment I’ve been waiting for since the very first issue and I’m completely surprised that it took so long for it to happen. The pacing and the flow of each storyline in Gødland has been very strange. I want to say that it’s the result of how Casey and Scioli are working on the book but I can’t confirm that. There are so many comics out there in which there is a strange pacing and there are plenty of artist who are very adept at controlling the pace of a story but there are also examples of writers who are very good at this (Warren Ellis is a great example, he’s a master of pacing).

Adam Archer’s arrival in space launches the series into a whole new level of action and cosmic adventures. He soon meets up with two other powerful cosmic beings: Vayikra and her son, Leviticus. They both remind of Jack Kirby’s New Gods and that’s a great fit because Gødland’s reason for being is to celebrate this kind of storytelling. Adam meets up with Vayikra and Leviticus while they are in the middle of a heated battled against N’ull Pax Mizer, a strong believer in the universal trust of eventualism. After helping them out in their fight, the mother-son duo decides to team up with Adam and join him on his search for his sister, Neela.

Neela is doing her own thing. She’s hunting down another powerful being, R@d-Ur-Rezz who goes around making mischief and causing as much confusion and chaos as possible. He lives by the code of total entropy and Neela is trying to stop him. We later find out why but I won’t spoil the good stuff for you. Meanwhile, on Earth, Friedrich Nickelhead is finally executing the plan he’s been working on since we first met him way back in the first volume. It’s equally surprising and underwhelming. Surprising, because I didn’t expect this series to go there, but underwhelming because it’s something we’ve seen several times before in superhero comics. Sure, Casey and Scioli make it their own but it still feels too familiar.

Without a doubt, Gødland: Far Beyong the Bang! propels the series into a whole new level of comics. It really makes the other volumes look boring in comparison. It’s sad to say but it’s true. I feel like he creators have been holding out on us. I can just imagine how torturous this would have been to read during it’s original, often delayed publication. Not only is it packed with story (I left out quite a bit) but the art seems to explode off the page! I love it! This is Scioli at his best (so far) and although I’m not the biggest fan of his style (it’s Kirby and it’s also not Kirby, I’m not sure how to describe it) it’s quite exciting to see him let loose on his character designs. He’s clearly having a blast drawing the hell out of the space portion of this story. I’m looking forward to the sixth and final volume of the series. I really don’t have any idea how the story will end because it feels like it all just began. Casey and Scioli quickly built up the momentum with the first volume but they let it die almost completely before really kicking it into high gear with the fourth and fifth volumes. Can it continue to improve in quality? I hope so but there’s only one way to find out. I just hope I don’t have to wait too long until the trade paperback is released.

Gødland volume 2 and 3 review

Gødland: Another Sunny Delight and Gødland: Proto-Plastic Party, the second and third volumes of the series didn’t convert met to the church of all things cosmic as I was expecting and (let’s be honest) hoping they would. While the first volume felt a bit disjointed, I still enjoyed it. Casey and Scioli did a pretty good job introducing several characters and locations. They also introduced the superhero and cosmic elements of the series which the creators combined together while also keeping them separated. The problem with volumes 2 and 3 is that the story doesn’t seem to really progress much beyond what was introduced in the first volume. Part of that problem is that what was so strongly foreshadowed in the first volume actually happens in the second volume which isn’t bad in and of itself, but I’m certain it’s a contributing factor to while I feel that book is starting to spin its wheels. The other reason I think I feel this way is that Casey and Scioli still seem to be setting up their characters and plots. Three volumes in, your comic book shouldn’t feel like it’s still setting up the story.

The problem isn’t that there aren’t any new developments. On the contrary, if you look at the individual plot points, things are moving forward at a pretty constant pace. The problem is that very few of the stories are connected together. Another Sunny Delight delivers immediately on the promises of the first volume. Adam Archer is the first cosmic being of planet Earth which makes him the herald of Earth’s cosmic awakening. The space dog, Maxim, had informed Adam that this would strike the interest of other beings in the universe. Book Seven (every issue is called a book) is an alien attack on New York and Adam goes around stopping the threat. This is a good example of how Gødland is a mixture of superhero and cosmic comics. Adam Archer is mostly a superhero and his origin story took place on Mars. The story continues with an exploration of Casey and Scioli’s cosmic mythology: Iboga the god creator. Iboga is the universe and, in turn, the universe is Iboga. It’s one of my favourite issues of the comic so far. The rest of Adam’s stories in the second and also during the third volumes consist of his reactionary defense of New York which are written as superheroic battle scene with a cosmic twist or two.

There are other plotlines going on though. While Adam is the clearly the main protagonist, there are plenty of other protagonists and more than a few antagonists to go around. The various storylines can be organized into three categories: 1) Alien threats to the planet (including Ed, Suprah and Eeg-oh’s machinations); 2) the three supervillains, Friedrich Nickelhead, the Tormentor and Basil Cronus, bickering amongst each other and trying to do . . . something, and 3) the Archer family having adventures out in space and fighting aliens while trying to keep the US military off their backs. The second and third volumes are good but I can’t help but feel a bit let down. It could all be because of my high expectations for the series (I blame you, Internet!). It’s got plenty of action and for a moment I thought the comic was picking up speed but I think Casey and Scioli are juggling more storylines than they can successfully handle at the same time. I generally love when a comic has multiple different storylines all happening at the same time but the different storylines are progressing at different speeds yet all of them remain slow except for Adam’s which is beginning to be repetitive (but it will probably just serve as preparation for his evolutionary leap into a fully fledge cosmic being).

Casey includes other things in Gødland that I simply fail to understand. There are many references to awful reality TV shows. So many that I think Casey is intentionally making references to what I would consider terrible television. I’m completely unable to tell you why though. I do not understand it’s importance to the story or to the themes being developed in the series so far. If anything it just seems to intentionally date the entire project in the later part of the last decade. That’s problematic because it took the creators roughly seven years to complete the 36 issues long series. References made in the earlier issues give a different cultural snapshot than references in later issues would give, presuming that Casey continues with his references.

Another element of my frustration is that I feel as though both of these creators could offer more. While Joe Casey’s body of work is generally hit and miss with me, I’ve read some fantastic comics written by him (Wildcats 3.0, Automatic Kafka and Butcher Baker, the Righteous Maker, and Officer Downe to name some of my favourites). As for Tom Scioli, his art is inconsistent. He seems to up his game when he has something truly spectacular to illustrate. A good example of this is book eight titled “Origin of the Universe”. It’s not only one of the visual highlights of the comic so far, Casey also scripts the crap out of it.

While the pastiche in volume one was more obvious seen in the art, Casey steps up to the plate with his dialogue and narration, providing plenty of Kirby-esque writing. Some of it sounds absolutely ludicrous but it works well in conveying the tone of the series. The second volume also specified exactly what the tone will be by upping the humour factor above what was showcased in the first volume. I’m looking forward to seeing the multiples plot threads collide. I feel like this comic needs more conflict. There’s action and drama a plenty; characters regularly fence with words but it’s mostly threats and posturing. Casey and Scioli might be using Jack Kirby’s body of work and the comics of other notable creators of their youths but it’s limited to style. The contents of Gødland fail to reflect the energy and bombast of the average Kirby comic. So far Gødland is more of an interesting comic to read than a really great one but hopefully the following volumes can improve on what’s happened in the preceding volumes. 

Miscellaneous Reviews 04: Happy! and Godland: Hello, Cosmic!

Happy!:

Published by Image and created by a superstar creative team of Grant Morrison (writer) and Darick Robertson (artist), Happy! in an exercise in juxtaposition, a genre mash-up comic and like all other mash-ups, it succeeds not based on the genres it’s playing with but on how good the story is. I would characterize Happy! as a mash-up failure and here’s why. Morrison takes a crime story and mixes it with, um, something. That’s the first problem. If you’re going to mix two things together, you have to be able to clearly identify what’s being mixed. This comic is clearly a mash-up of something but Morrison never clarifies both components of what’s being combined. One side, the crime comic, is pretty clear but what’s the deal with Happy the Horse? What kind of story is it and how do you categorize that? I can easily picture a crime story because millions of them exist, some great and some terrible but I’m not able to come to terms with Happy (the horse, not the comic - well the comic, too).

The other reason why Happy! doesn’t work is that the recognizable part of the comic is a boring rehash of other stories. Most notably, it reminds me of the basic plot of The Hard Goodbye, the first Sin City story by Frank Miller. I’m not saying Morrison is taking his plot points form another writer, I’m pointing out that nobody seems to have noticed the pretty strong similarities between both stories. As for the parts that make this story different from The Hard Goodbye, they’re trite and predictable. Mash-ups aren’t very convincing when the basic story stems mostly from one of the two genres and uses a well-known story in the same medium as its plot.  My third problem is that Morrison’s unique authorial voice is completely lost. It’s hard to tell it’s actually written by Morrison. The reason could be that he’s unfamiliar with crime stories. The dialogue also suffers because I got a sense that Morrison was trying too hard. Most of the characters use fuck as punctuation and while that in itself isn’t necessarily what makes the dialogue terrible, it certainly doesn’t help.

I don’t even have anything particularly nice to say about the art. Robertson does a good job drawing things that are gross. He’s really good at capturing images and characters that show the dirtier parts of life, particularly life in the city. I think Robertson is a good fit for this kind of story but there was something different with the inking. The lines were thinner than what I’m used to seeing with his art. At the end known of that really matters because the colouring was too dark to let any of the line work to really shine through. What could have been a really interesting mini-series by two well-known and applauded creators in modern comics, Happy! will undoubtedly be relegated to a mere footnote in the story of these creators contribution to the medium. 

Gødland: Hello, Cosmic!:

Gødland is a superhero and cosmic comic pastiche. Specifically, it riffs on the works of Jack Kirby, both his art and a bit of the writing, and on the family dynamic of the Fantastic Four. It’s co-created by Joe Casey and Tom Scioli and they’re not just making use of some of the great comics of their youths, they’re also using what is known in the industry as the “Marvel style” of creating comics. Casey writes out a plot and hands it over to Scioli who draws out an entire issue and hands it back to Casey who writes in the caption boxes and dialogue. It’s a different form of collaboration than what we usually see in comics today but it seems to work pretty well for these two.

I’ve regularly read good things about Gødland online, particularly by people whose taste often matches up with me. I’ve also read other comics by Casey that I’ve enjoyed quite a bit (but he also has some terrible stuff). It was just a matter of time until I read Gødland and now that I finally have, I’m a bit disappointed. Part of my disappointment is related to my expectations. I wanted more science fiction, more things cosmic. The first volume of Gødland focuses as much on the Archer family and their relationship with the universal cosmology than it did on supervillainy with characters such as Basil Cronus (love the name), Discordia and her father. I like it but I don’t love it. I feel like Casey and Scioli are getting their footing but it’s still impressive what they accomplish. You can tell that they have a good idea where they want the story to go but it’s not minutely planned out.

The first volume of Gødland leaves me wanting more. It kind of felt like a tease even though Casey and Scioli introduce a lot of characters, some important backstory all while setting up the larger story still to come. I want to know more about the space foetus Adam meets on Mars, I want to know more about Maxim the armoured spaced dog and Iboga the mysterious space god. I also want to know more about the Archer sisters, Stella, Neela and Angie. I feel like the book will focus primarily on the Archer sisters and their relationship (or lack of) with Adam but also because family is an important theme in Casey’s body of work. Gødland is simultaneously impressive and underwhelming. I know, it’s a strange combination, but I’ve responded to a comic like this before. It makes me feel like I did when reading Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles which is one of his best comics. I’m hoping that’s an indication that Gødland will also be a great comic but the only way to find out for certain is to keep on reading.