Ordinary Gods #5

Ordinary Gods #5

Image Comics 2021

Written by Kyle Higgins & Joe Clark

Illustrated by Felipe Wtanabe

Coloured by Frank William

Lettered by Clayton Cowles

With four of the Five awakened, all eyes turn to the final piece of the puzzle. But who is the Prodigy? Where in the world are they? And who will get to them first?

The more we see of this series the more impressed I become. I mean to be reincarnated time and time again like a sleeper agent not awakened unless needed, and you’ll always be needed, sounds like it incorporates different religions into one belief system. It is incredibly intriguing and something that engages the reader to learn more about various religious beliefs and question what they themselves believe in and if a story can do that based on its premise alone it’s something special right off the bat. Then once we get into the story and see what it’s about and what the characters are going to have to do, some of which is still shrouded in mystery, it just gets that much exciting because then we’re engaged in a completely different way as our minds try to piece together where things are going next and why. From every angle of this book we’re entertained, engaged, invested and intrigued by what we see happening and for me it’s a rare thing to see at such a level as this.

I’m absolutely loving 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 exquisitely. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a magnificent job in continually fleshing out their personalities. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story the more enraptured we become as the revelations come to light.

I’m really impressed with the way that this is being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. I like how we see the layers within the story open up new avenues to be explored, Bri with the High Steward for instance or the girl Gabi. These and more add so much 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 are handled exceptionally well.

These characters have this classic comic book style to them and then there’s the backgrounds with this insane level & quality in the attention paid to detail. The outside and inside of Cathedral Sainte-Clotilde is insanely good, so is the Stewards property that we see. That the backgrounds are so essential and how they enhance and expand the moments make me shiver with delight. The composition within the panels as it brings out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the store are marvellously rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows an innate understanding of how colour works, how light sources change shades and how to maximise the colours effects.

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There really isn’t much about this that I can find fault with. The writing is exceptionally well done and the characterisation is spectacular and still leaves room for so much growth while these interiors are absolutely bloody brilliant. That these creators have managed to take an idea and turn it into something extraordinary is mind blowing to me because I’d never have been able to come up with and execute a story of this magnitude so bloody effortlessly, seemingly or allegedly.