Comic Review: Godfell #1

Godfell #1

Vault Comics

Writer: Christopher Sebela

Art: Ben Hennessy

Colors: Triona Farrell

Letters: Jim Campbell

Vault Comics new title Godfell tells us the story of a world where god suddenly fell from the sky and disrupted life as it was. But this does not stop the main character from reaching her loved ones after a long war as she ventures through god’s body to achieve her goals.

Godfell #1 starts off by showing us the day of the titular fall of a creature some belief to be the god that created this universe. As the impact of the titanic body hitting the ground spreads across the land we are shown and told how it affected the cultures in the vicinity of ground zero, Kerethim. The comic then turns to a battlefield where the story’s protagonist, Zanzi Vuiline, is mowing down enemies. Zanzi is clearly a natural-born warrior having no trouble dealing with multiple enemies at once.

The opening of Godfell is a straightforward exposition. No two ways about it. Up until the sixth page or so the readers are given nothing but poetic narration. I did like how writer Christopher Sebela used god’s fall as an excuse to show the readers what they have prepared for this comic world since the event affects different cultures in different ways. I also liked Zanzi’s character a lot. She’s a classic strong and silent type rare for female characters. It’s made obvious how much of a badass she is by the respect and outright fear her peers feel for her. She’s determined to quit the war and return to her love and children.

The first thing that drew me to the artwork was Zanzi’s design. Simple and sensational. A giant warrior woman ready to take on the world with her giant axe. Artist Ben Hennessy made the protagonist’s facial expressions very subtle but they come through quite nicely and the reader is able to relate to the character easily. The rest of the designs are pretty engaging too. Animals with features mixed with our regular ones posed against a variety of architectural scenarios bring the promise of an exciting world due to how familiar and yet weird it is. God’s partial design is, yet again, very intriguing because it is alien to everything else shown until now.

Colors by Triona Farrell are stunning. My favorite part of it is the backdrops during Zanzi’s journey montage. The colors are applied to bring forth a feeling attached to the scenarios as well as the passage of time. And the splash with god’s cadaver is just plain gorgeous to look at. Farrell also did the gore of the comic quite well which makes me excited to see what will be inside a giant dead body.

Lettering by Jim Campbell gets the job done. He does fine with the narration and speech bubbles but the sound effects – as usual – are where Campbell’s work shines the most. They complement the atmosphere of action scenes with gory squishes but my favorite display of good use of lettering is the sound of Zanzi sharpening her weapon throughout a whole day before deserting the army. It helps to build the anticipation of the character.

Godfell presents a new and engaging world with a promising albeit small cast of characters. It’s plain to see the creative team has a lot planned for this but I really wish they’d lay off the narration in the next issues. I don’t have a problem with a nice complement now and then but I do feel it’s a violation of the “show don’t tell” principle of every visual medium. In any case, I recommend picking this up if you’re a fan of fantasy adventures in weird worlds such as The Last Airbender.