Ordinary Gods #3

Ordinary Gods #3

Image Comics 2021

Written by Kyle Higgins & Joe Clark

Illustrated by Felipe Watanbe

Coloured by Frank William

Lettered by Clayton Cowles

Paris! City of Light! The awakened gods are on the hunt for the Trickster—but how do you find one person in a city of millions? And they'll need to hurry—because on the Plane of the Gods, those who remain are starting to move against them.

I find myself increasingly intrigued by this story the more of it that I read. This is really due to the fact that with each issue we get to meet more and more of the gods that are playing roles in this little drama. The more of them that we meet the more complex and interesting the story gets. I’m pretty impressed with the pacing of the introductions so that we don’t feel like they are coming at us too quickly and instead there is a great uncongested flow. Of course as we see some of these gods excogitate the more interesting these events seem to be getting. There really is this great sense of grandeur happening within these pages and you see it bubbling just beneath the surface waiting for that rise up and take its spot in the book.

I am enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a spectacular job in bringing these characters to life. The pacing is excellent as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story and introducing characters. It pulls us into this in some divine ways.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continuing to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen is superbly rendered. The layers we see open up new avenues and explore those that have already opened and whether or not they all get explored, what they all add is this great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably achieved. I love the myriad of arcs that will eventually converge, some faster than others, happening side by side throughout the book.

The interiors here are pretty intense. The linework that we see is strong and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail in the work we see is outrageously good. I do like how prolific we see backgrounds being utilised throughout the book and how they enhance and expand the moments. They also work well within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a great understanding of how colour works and how to get the maximum effect from its usage. The creativity and imagination we see here is rather fun to see as well and you have to see certain moments to really understand why.

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I think the idea and how we see it being executed, or brought to life, is extremely well crafted. It is unique, fresh and exciting as it brings us a new take on the gods of old and their continuing machinations in lives of mere mortals. This is strong intelligent writing with some frank characterisation that’s all wrapped up in these amazing interiors bringing it all to life making this an exciting and deadly new addition to Image’s lineup of stellar titles.