Godhead 2
Writer/Artist: Ho Che Anderson
Graytone Artist: Victoria Pumphrey
Letterer: Pol Carpenter
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
Publication Date: January 2023
Cartoonist Ho Che Anderson has now concluded his magnum opus, Godhead, with Godhead 2. This conclusion is out now, almost 5 years after the primary half half printed. It is probably essential to notice earlier than going additional that these are usually not works that stand alone. No, Godhead and now Godhead 2 are very a lot one ebook cut up in two — neither works with out the opposite, at the least not and not using a heavy diploma of confusion. That mentioned, when taken collectively they’re one of the vital attention-grabbing motion/espionage comics in years.
Yes, Godhead 2 marks the completion of a powerful work. It is an espionage story constructed upon a basis of stress, stress between a few of the guiding parts of civilization — faith, science, and the company manipulation of each. As the ebook’s identify implies, faith is at its heart. It manifests not solely within the title, however in addition to within the ebook’s most placing imagery, the futuristic cityscapes overseen by gigantic and statuesque literal godheads, the overwhelming majority of which appeared within the first quantity.
Which is smart. The first Godhead had fairly a little bit of setup to take action that Godhead 2 might pay it off now with mainly nonstop motion. It’s type of like an inverted Kill Bill in that approach, with the exposition developing entrance (though the primary half had loads of its personal set items). The second ebook, although, delivers a far tenser experience that reads extra rapidly, placing many characters (and their values) in play and sending them by the ringer to indicate us what people are coping with on this planet Anderson has crafted.
In a approach, this second quantity appears like an evolution of the kind of motion comedian you usually see from the direct market, alternating at instances between bursts of machine gun combating and intensive relationship melodrama. Where it actually transcends, although, is with Anderson’ strategy to the cartooning, particularly the web page layouts. There is one two-page unfold particularly on this second ebook that lands among the many most kinetic cartooning I’ve ever seen. It makes use of a mixture of automotive chases, gunfire, and character response, with a sweeping establishing shot of the elevated freeway the place it’s all going down, dotted on the latter half with inset panels.
That’s only one instance, however Godhead 2 is dotted with visible storytelling ideas on par with what I’ve described above. The ebook is an absolute deal with from a craft perspective, one which makes this 150-page-plus second quantity learn a bit just like the grand finale at a fireworks present — all killer and no filler. When taken together with the heady world-building and philosophical questions raised by the story’s first half (that are addressed once more right here across the edges of the combating), it’s a robust package deal.
Ultimately, if you happen to learn Godhead and thought it felt incomplete…I can’t fault you. But now with Godhead 2, Ho Che Anderson has completed the story, delivering a second half that reveals the total scope of his narrative ambitions. When taken collectively, these two elements are a fancy treatise on creation, on faith and AI, and on how at this level in civilization, each worship and origination have been overtaken in a way by company constructions. We as a individuals are as loyal and indebted to them as we’re or have been to any religion. Plus, there are freeway machine gun fights.
Godhead 2 is an attention-grabbing graphic novel, the type that makes use of tense visible storytelling to boost extra questions than it does to supply solutions.
Godhead 2 is out now.
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