Broken Frontier

I have a love/hate relationship with the works of Warren Ellis. Always imaginative, I find some of his works so heavy on nihilism and counter-culture that they become unreadable to me. He is no doubt a master of his craft, and everything he writes is well written, technically, but the leaps he makes are often too much. On the other hand, when he makes contact, he generally knocks it out of the park. Orbiter and Ministry of Space come to mind as grand slams. Based on this introductory issue, SuperGod has the potential to be in that category as well.

As a first issue, SuperGod #1 is very concept heavy, with a narrative character introducing the setting for us in an expository fashion. The world is crumbling, subjected to a disaster caused by man-made Gods. Steeped in a series of cultural mythologies, Ellis introduces us to the Gods of the modern age. From England comes a Celtic inspired deity called the Morrigan Lugus, a bizarre fusion of three astronauts from the English space program, tainted with cosmic rays a la Fantastic Four. Ellis indulges in his typical heavy handed symbolism with the mushroom-laden Morrigan Lugus and its phallic implications. From India comes Krishna, an artificial intelligence super-robot with destructive tendencies. The Iranian God is a technological attempt at creating an angel with the name of Malak Al-Maut. And finally, the American God, briefly hinted at seems to be a Christian android superman with good old American values (this is a guess, from the crucified image of the cover).

There is little hint as to where the actual narrative will take us from the first issue, but the world Ellis has created is absolutely fascinating. He is playing with the themes of myths, Gods, science, and the destruction of the world by forces beyond the control of men, though created by them. It remains to be seen how he will treat the subjects, but if his past works are any indication we can expect some piercing satire and cynicism from Mr. Ellis.

From a production value standpoint, Avatar has published a book on par with anybody in the industry. The excellent artwork by Garrie Gastonny is beautifully colored and reproduced on a pleasing glossy stock. Gastonny does an incredible job of rendering the high technology of the national God-builders.

SuperGod #1 is a very pleasing package. There is not much plot to speak of, but in just a standard sized comic, Ellis succeeds in creating a fantastic alternate reality rife with theological implications. I look forward to seeing how the construction goes on this solid foundation.