Written by Kyle Higgins
Art by Felipe Watanabe
Published by Image Comics
Even though we got a brief outline of the premise driving Ordinary Gods, we have a lot more of the rules to uncover in this prison for immortal gods called Earth.
Last issue’s shock violence sequence, in which Christopher’s little sister Brianna killed their parents and attempted to take him out as well, is explained as a “steward.”
These stewards activate whenever one of the imprisoned gods begins to come to their senses.
]Imagine how Agent Smith in The Matrix could override anyone in the system, except this time he shows up as the person you’re most bonded to emotionally. Yikes!
After the attack by his sister, and the arrival of a bearded stranger, Christopher wakes up in a facility run by Reclamation, a Scientology-like religion about reclaiming past lives. After a brief attempt at escape, Christopher listens to the people who have taken him. Or rescued him, from their point of view.
Christopher then is told that Reclamation is actually a front for finding the other gods sent to Earth and helping them realize themselves so that they can travel back to their planet and end the war there.
And just when Christopher is ready to bail, to say Reclamation brainwashed him and his sister somehow, they take him to meet one of those stewards, spectral and uncoupled from a body, but very much real under the ultraviolet lights.
The Reclamation folks mention the surfacing of past lives via visions, and Christopher can’t deny those.
Especially once he experiences one of those visions revealing him to have been Joseph Stalin!
Double yikes!
This issue revels in the kind of information that reveals more details and complications of the story so far. I’m sure some larger twist is in the works that will flip the story on its head, but we’ll see if that happens.
The issue also continues with a backmatter story from one of the awakened, telling of past lives as a liberator, healer, and witness to death and destruction.
Ordinary Gods is a fun one so far! Keep it going, folks.
