God is Dead by Hickman Costa and Amorim

7/10

This graphic novel has an interesting concept, not what if God (Judeo-Christian) came back, but what if the Gods came back to Earth. In 2015 it begins with Zeus coming back with these words “I will be WORSHIPPED again. I will be OBEYED”. Which sounds like an interesting concept, of course I said Gods and he isn’t the only one. In this volume, three gods from each of these pantheons: Greek, Norse, Egyptian, Aztec and Hindu arrive back on Earth to form a new pantheon. I wonder why and how the creators of this graphic novel chose these particular gods.

As these gods come from different cultures with different forms of worship their effect on humanity is extreme, the Aztec gods demand blood sacrifice starting with atheists, but it would take a while for anyone to become a true believer even confronted with gods as a fact of life. What if you were in a part of the world which had been deemed a certain god’s territory but wanted to worship a different one?

Then there are the protagonists of this story: The Collective, a group of scientists who are looking for a way to kill these newly returned gods and they have their work cut out for them but are also helped by the gods innate natures to conquer. The Collective itself is made up of four male scientists (maybe no female scientists survived) and two security consultants Duke and Gaby who are also father and daughter. Gaby is the lone woman in this group trying to save humanity. Gaby kicks ass, a master with a gun who has a smart mind, but for some reason is drawn wearing kilt and boob tube! The Collective does have character progression on their journey to enlightenment but there are moments when these characters seem to be thinly constructed.

The artwork in this novel is great, with a real depth and an amazing colour palate. When reading this you get a good sense of the destruction of the world and the darkness the survivors are facing. The gods have different colour schemes as well with a rich yellow backdrop surrounding the Egyptian gods. This is an action-packed graphic novel with most of the story focusing on battles between the American military and the Aztec gods. Then the gods start a Battle Royale between the mighty as they fight for control over the world. I think that this will be a series that gains a wider following as the story expands, this can be seen in the Interlude at the end of the first volume, it gives a whole new perspective which I hope will be further explored in the next volume.