“Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain.” Genesis 4:11 

The Goddamned takes place in the time before Noah needed to build his Ark; a time just before God had decided that mankind had screwed up so much that He needed to start over, so He hit the reset button and washed the scum from the face of the earth.

How bad was mankind before the Flood?

Pretty awful, actually, if Jason Aaron’s take is to be believed. This series, which the Nerdist so aptly describes as “the story of the book of Genesis told through a Grindhouse lens,”  is a brutal delight to read. Aaron doesn’t shy away from the brutal side of humanity, and the overall feeling of despair here is almost over powering. And yet despite the brutality and despair, something about the comic that just draws you in.

There’s a stunningly visceral feel to the art that rarely shies away from depicting the harsh reality that the characters face with a scrappy delicately brutal style that although it hasn’t changed at all, did need time to gestate and grow upon my sensibilities. Now I’m a huge fan, but at first? Not so much. I couldn’t imagine any artist and colourist but r.m. Guera and  Guilia Brusco on the book; their work reminds me of the British weekly 2000 AD  in all the right ways, and the sometimes rough edges to the artwork do more to compliment the story than they do to take away from it.

The Goddamned #4 may not have a feel-good tale at it’s core, but it sure does have story that’s worth reading. The Goddamned is anything but a happy comic, and it probably isn’t for everybody (especially young readers), but for those who decide to pick it up, you’re not going to be disappointed.

Story: Jason Aaron Art: r.m. Guera Colourist: Guilia Brusco
Story: 8.25 Art: 8.75 Overall: 8.5 Recommendation: Read

Image Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review.

“And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.” –Genesis 6:6 

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.

You’ll soon find out that the world of the Goddamned is not a nice place. It’s a brutal place where the strongest rule, and is the setting for a strangely compelling comic. Jason Aaron and r.m. Guera have delivered an issue that isn’t afraid to show the darker side of history, indeed the depictions of some of the (unnamed in the issue) characters certainly have the potential to offend.

But it’s that edginess that Aaron brings to his re-imagined biblical tale that makes the comic that much stronger.

r.m. Guera and colourist Guilia Brusco are perfectly suited to each other and to this comic as they bring life to the beautifully realized wasteland the the story is set against. The chaotic nature of the artwork returns from last issue, only this time the art felt much easier to follow along with; whether that’s because I knew what to expect, or because the fight scenes told didn’t repeat the same angles as last time, I’m not sure. Either way, though, I’m a huge fan of the artwork.

The Goddamned isn’t going to be for everybody, but for those who do pick it up, you’re in for a treat. Yes, the language is certainly more adult than Thor, but there’s never a feeling of vulgarity to the way in which Aaron uses the words he uses. Indeed, you’ll notice that the more savage creatures you meet in the book tend to employ a simpler use of language than the more civilized characters. Coupled with the contrast between the degenerative appearance of the savages and the more human like appearance of the  others and you’ve got an easy(ish) way to distinguish between the two groups on first glance when all the characters are wearing skins and furs.

Jason Aaron has rightly earned a reputation of being a great writer of comics, pick up The Goddamned and find out why.

Story: Jason Aaron Art: r.m. Guera Colourist: Guilia Brusco
Story: 8.25 Art: 8.25 Overall: 8.25 Recommendation: Buy

Image provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

“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