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Review: The Goddamned #1

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Goddamned01_CoverA“And the earth was filled with violence.” Genesis 6:11

It’s 1,655 years after Eden, and life on Earth has already gone to hell. The world of man is a place of wanton cruelty and wickedness. Prehistoric monsters and stone-age marauders roam the land. Murder and destruction are the rule of the day. Humankind is a failed experiment. This is life before the Flood. The story of man on the verge of his first apocalypse.

Welcome to the world of the Goddamned.
Jason Aaron has reunited with his Scalped collaborator r.m. Guera to bring us an entirely new kind of post (or pre, depending on how you look at it) apocalyptic tale. Set millienia ago The Goddamned is a look at a time before the biblical Flood where violence and squalor was the way of a barren world. Visually, that comes across perfectly as r.m. Guera illustrates some stunning vistas that are beautifully brought to life by colourist Guilia Brusco despite the barren desert landscape.

There is a level of detail in the art here that’s easy to miss unless you’re paying attention to it, adding incentive to really study each panel; in some cases, particularly during a suitably violent fight, the need to study the panels of the comic arise not because of the detail packed in, but because it can get a bit hard to tell just what exactly is going on. It doesn’t happen often, and when it does it’s in the chaos of battle, so I gave the comic the benefit of the doubt as it was an effective way of conveying the aforementioned chaos (whether intentional or not).

The Goddamned #1 has quite a bit of pace to it, with minimal text and speech for a majority of the pages within he comic; I like how the pages with minimal text impacts the way in which the story is told, just as I’m looking forward to seeing how the series will pan out five, six, seven or more issues down the road. Jason Aaron has earned a reputation of being a great writer of comics, and part of that is his ability to plot out a long story, and I can’t wait to see where he’ll take us with The Goddamned.

Story: Jason Aaron Art: R.M. Guera Colourist: Guilia Brusco
Story: 7.75 Art: 8 Overall: 8 Recommendation: Read

Image provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Review: The Goddamned #1

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Goddamned01_CoverAWriter Jason Aaron and artist R.M. Guéra reunite for a new ongoing series of stark and brutal biblical noir, which begins with an over-sized first issue featuring thirty pages of story.

“And the earth was filled with violence.” Genesis 6:11

It’s 1,655 years after Eden, and life on Earth has already gone to hell. The world of man is a place of wanton cruelty and wickedness. Prehistoric monsters and stone-age marauders roam the land. Murder and destruction are the rule of the day. Humankind is a failed experiment. This is life before the Flood. The story of man on the verge of his first apocalypse. Welcome to the world of the Goddamned.

Aaron and Guéra have shown us they can do a comic series that pays off after a long read, and Aaron regularly writes series where the stories don’t pay off for dozens of issues.

The Goddamned #1 feels like that sort of series slowly teasing out the story and the characters within. It’s not until the final pages that things begin to come together as to who we’ve been reading about and what might be going on.

There are a lot of questions I had, such as why *Redacted* speaks so well, seems to have blond hair, as more advance than everyone else. It’s an oddity that at times took me out of the story. I’m sure we’ll find out why, but for a first issue, it was on my mind a lot.

That said, the first issue is a slow, long build, and I think the reveal at the end was interesting enough to get me to come back for the next issue and made me want to find out more.

The art is solid and continues Guéra’s distinctive style. If you’ve enjoyed his previous work, you’ll enjoy this as well. The individuals are varied and the detail for each is impressive. You’ll find yourself staring a the images, which is important, as they tell as much of the story as the text.

The Goddamned #1 is an interesting start, though didn’t blow me away as expected. Aaron is an amazing writer, and my expectations are probably higher for him than most. Still the comic piqued my interest enough to want to check out the second issue and see how the story builds. If nothing else, this may be a unique and interesting concept, which Aaron excels at building upon.

Story: Jason Aaron Art: R.M. Guéra
Story: 7.65 Art: 8 Overall: 7.75 Recommendation: Read

Image Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

The Goddamned unveils a world of wanton cruelty, wickedness, and violence

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Bestselling writer Jason Aaron teams up with artist R.M. Guéra for an all-new series of Biblical proportions in the violent reimagining of the Old Testament in The Goddamned. First announced at Image Expo, the new series will launch from Image Comics this November.

In The Goddamned #1, the creators that brought readers the fan-favorite Scalped, reunite for a stark and brutal biblical noir, which begins with a special over-sized debut issue weighing in with 30 pages of story.

The Goddamned #1 (Diamond Code SEP150529) will hit stores on Wednesday, November 11th. Cover B, featuring art by Jock can be ordered with Diamond Code SEP150530. The final order cutoff deadline is Monday, October 19th.

THE GODDAMNED #1

Preview: Grindhouse: Drive In, Bleed Out #1

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Dark Horse Comics has released a preview of Grindhouse: Drive In, Bleed Out #1 from Alex de Campi and R. M. Guéra

Grindhouse is back from the dead, and it’s meaner, badder, and dirtier than ever! In the first of four new exploitation opuses, Scalped’s R. M. Guéra joins series writer Alex de Campi for “Slay Ride,” a brutal holiday tale of revenge and supernatural terror in the driven snow!

Grindhouse: Drive In, Bleed Out #1 is on sale November 12th.

GRINDHOUSE DRIVE IN, BLEED OUT #1

Review – Django Unchained #2

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Django Unchained #2 CoverDjango Unchained isn’t just an Oscar nominated movie, it’s also being released as a six issue mini-series from Vertigo. The comic book adaptation is based off the original screenplay, not just an adaptation of the movie. That means it includes scenes that didn’t make it into the theatrical cut.

For those that don’t know the story of Django Unchained is the story of a slave “freed” by a German bounty hunter and they team up to rescue Django’s wife from a ruthless plantation owner.

I saw the movie, and for me, part of the interest is to see the differences between the two. There’s differences so far, but they’re very subtle. There’s also just a fascinating aspect as to how a touchy subject and some very sensitive language is reacted to based upon how you consume the material.

There’s the violence, that to me actually seems toned down in the comic. What’s interesting to me is the words, especially one word in particular. You know the word I’m talking about. Listening to it on the screen, I counted around 127 instances of it being said and that had me cringe at times. Reading it is interesting and I find myself actually debating the use of that word while reading the first two issues.

If you’ve seen the movie, there’s not much different here, so far subtle differences. What’s amazing is how the reaction to the same story can differ between how we consume that media. I loved the movie, of course I’m enjoying the comic. It’s Tarantino, kind of hard for it to be bad.

Story: Quentin Tarantino Adapted: Reggie Hudin Art: R.M. Guera and Jason Latour

Story: 8 Art: 7.5 Overall: 7.75 Recommendation: Buy

Vertigo and DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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