Bigger Than Capes

Writer: Kyle Higgins
Artist: Felipe Watanabe
Colourist: Frank William
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Backup Story: Jana Quinn
Logo Designer: Rich Bloom
Designer & Editor: Michael Busuttil

Ordinary Gods tells the story of five rebellious gods trapped in the bodies of unaware mortals here on the prison that is Earth. Well, a prison if you’re an immortal being from another world ruled by the iron fist of The One King.

I’m not going to give away too much of the backstory here, it’s explained over the course of some really nice pages that are better experienced first hand. What’s important to know is that The Luminary – the leader of the rebellion – is currently hosted by Christopher, or so the cult-like Reclamation believes.

Christopher is a regular enough kind of guy, living with his parents and younger sister, working a job he doesn’t like and struggling with depression. Much as we saw in Radiant Black Kyle Higgins’ character work is really great throughout the issue, making Christopher a relatable protagonist experiencing some very understandable troubles, at least until members of the Reclamation start trying to convince him he’s a god.

Felipe Watanabe’s artwork throughout the issue is good, and the more epic sequences are definitely where he shines the most. I will make the complaint that unfortunately Christopher’s sister Brianna suffers from that classic comic book problem of being a twelve year old who in some panels looks like she could be anywhere between twelve and thirty. Frank William’s colours add nicely to the art creating a good variation between the Earthbound scenes and the scenes with gods fighting in fantasy locations. However, there is at least one panel that needs some tidying up with the colouring, it’s nothing major but Chrisptopher’s skin tone continuing to the length of his legs while he’s under a blanket is a weird visual.

Clayton Cowles’ lettering is as consistent as ever from start to finish and I’m particularly a fan of the time stamp boxes we see a couple of times, though I’m not sure if the credit there is due to Cowles or Michael Busuttil, who worked on the design for this issue.

This isn’t my first gods/immortals/embodiments of concepts trapped in human form rodeo, and with that in mind this issue isn’t really doing enough to keep my attention. I’d go as far as to say that Christopher as a character is the greatest hook for me, and though I hope I’m wrong, I have some suspicions that his character moments are going to be sidelined as the narrative sweeps him away. This is by no means a bad issue, and I think a lot of readers will get to enjoy Ordinary Gods as a take on a narrative they might not have read before, which is unfortunately where I differ here.