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SMALL GODS #1-2
Highly Recommended (10/10)
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Image Comics
"Killing Grin"
Artist: Juan E. Ferreyra
"Outside the Box"
Artist: Mahmud A. Asara
Writer: Jason Rand
Letters: Jim Keplinger
Editor: Kristen Simon
Price: $2.95 US/$3.95 CAN |
Image is two for two with me this week, because Forsaken and Small Gods are both exceptionally promising new series that blend the science-fiction and crime genres, but they both do it in different ways, and I have two new potential favorite series as a result. Small Gods is not about the future, but about a parallel present, where psionic powers became a known quantity in 1% of the population, and the story explores how that has changed society, specifically how it has affected law enforcement. The approach, focusing in on one specific precog, reads like a blend of the best elements of Minority Report and The Shield, and the grayscale artwork is gorgeous, good enough that even you color snobs out there out to take a look and give it a chance to impress. Hell, I even like the backup story, and I hate the backup story as a general concept.
Rand's take on psionic powers and how they would be looked on strikes me as very realistic. The notion that society would be so afraid of the privacy implications of telepathy that they would imprison those who wanted to use it to help is a sadly honest comment on human nature, and I love the splitting of hairs between telepathy and precognition and how it relates to law enforcement that seems so true to the way the law works as well. The world of Small Gods seems full of endless potential for stories, and Rand has cleverly added just a minor twist with far-reaching ramifications as opposed to throwing too many elements in and rendering the world recognizable.
 In fact, while the psychic element is very important to the story that Rand is telling here, this is very much a cop drama as much as anything else. The disappointment that Owen feels when the job doesn't go right and his analytical view of the world, as portrayed in his narrative, tells us a lot about his life and his character, just in time for the last page of the first issue to turn it all upside down. And the second issue's story explores the notions of right and wrong and law and justice and how those are all mixed up, and it says something that not only does Rand manage to make a thoroughly criminal act look like the only just thing to do, he has me completely rooting for the characters to do it. Rand's writing is complex in all the right ways, which means that he's thought through the speculative elements as well as the human nature factor of how people react, but without dumping so much information or so many characters on the reader that the story isn't clear to read. You may reread Small Gods more than once, but it won't be because you have to.
As much as Rand's scripts drag the reader into a world that feels so real, however, the artwork by Ferreyra helps to sell the notion of the world as well. His work here reminds me somewhat of the photo-realistic styles of Butch Guice or Greg Land, with an especially vivid sequence that shows Owen's "flash" of the bank robbery as a standout. What's all the more impressive is that he makes these characters so distinctive and believable without the aid of color, and the grayscale actually adds to the noir tone of the book in some respects. Beyond just a beautiful surface, though, Ferreyra really does some terrific character moments, from the nervous grin of the computer operator when he makes a faux pas to the close-in on Owen in the last page of issue one.
Here's something that my regular readers might know about me: I am categorically not a fan of the backup story. I find in general that I'd rather those pages go to the main story, and having a backup usually means that the main feature gets short shrift, and the backup doesn't have enough room to maneuver either. That is not the case with Small Gods, although it did take me until issue two to really realize it. While "Outside the Box," the backup, features a less-impressive art style than Ferreyra's faux painted approach, but it tells the story solidly enough. More importantly, the story itself is very intriguing. At four pages a pop, it does feel remarkably short, but Rand gets a lot across in those four pages, whether it's the start of a beautiful friendship in issue one or a particularly effective and brutal use of telekinesis and weapons in issue two. In terms of extra content, I also have to give the nod to the book's full-color back covers, which tease an ad from the psychic-active world of Small Gods, and add a nice bit of flavor (and a touch of humor) to the whole package.
These comic books were not among this week's new releases.
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