I wasn’t expecting to read Godkillers #1 until the preview text caught my eye. The concept sounded interesting so I decided to give it a read.

Abdul Alhazred is an Arab-American folklore professor turned soldier whose fear of death stems from uncertainty about the existence of an afterlife. He joins The Godkillers, a special forces unit tasked with fighting insurgents who use mythological creatures as weapons of mass destruction. Now that he knows the supernatural exists, he’ll have to decide which is worse—death or the nightmarish monsters he thought were mere legends.

Now in all honesty Godkillers #1 wasn’t a book I enjoyed all that much. Th that’s largely because I’m not exactly a fan of the setting. But, I understand why the story has to be framed the way it is. I wanted to like this book, and some aspects I genuinely enjoyed, but it’s just not a comic for me. It’s not a comic I’d typically pick up or review. I am trying to keep that in mind as I write this review.

Because I want to be as fair to the book as I can be, I’m going to break with a typical review style and just give you a set of bullet points.

Pros

• The art is gritty, dark and moody when it needs to be. It never quite lets you get comfortable, which fits the story’s style very well.
• Abdul Alhazred feels like a fully fleshed-out character who we’re only seeing glimpses of. His narration bubbles really flesh out his thoughts on the world. The gradual reveal of his motivations makes me want to learn more about the character. His lack of understanding of the events coincides nicely with the lack of information given in the book itself. You really feel like you’re in this with him.

Cons

• Without having read the preview text I probably wouldn’t have known what the hell was going on in the comic.
• The art made it a little difficult at times to decipher what was going on on the page. The caveat here is that for some reason the review PDF didn’t scroll as well as others which also played a part in my difficulty in reading the book.
• There’s a lot of vagueness as to the events of the book, which is mostly a good thing until you realize that without the preview text you’d have been totally lost.

Conclusion
Godkillers #1 really wasn’t my cup of tea. At the same time, I know that just because it didn’t resonate with me doesn’t mean it’s a bad comic. The opposite is also true sometimes, as well. It just means it didn’t strike a chord. I can still appreciate the art, and the idea behind the story without being unfairly harsh to the comic. Objectively, there isn’t anything bad about the book as far as I can tell, and I hope that if you read it then you’re going to enjoy it more than I did. I won’t be scoring the story because I don’t think I can do it objectively or fairly.

If nothing else, I think you need to read this book.

Story: Mark Sable Artist: Maan House
Colorist: Hernan Cabrera Letterer: Thomas Mauer
Story: (N/A) Art: 8.0 Overall: 8.0 Recommendation: Read

Aftershock provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review