Comic Review: Ordinary Gods #4

Image Comics

Writers: Kyle Higgins & Joe Clark

Art: Felipe Watanabe

Colors: Frank William

Letters: Clayton Cowles

Another chapter of Higgins and Clark’s series on immortals turned mortals was released last week in the fourth issue of Ordinary Gods. The series follows Christopher as his life takes a turn when his whole family is suddenly murdered by his younger sister, Brianna. Christopher then learns he is a reincarnation of a god from another world called the Luminary. Along with other four individuals, Christopher is supposed to break out of Earth which is actually a prison designed for these lost gods.

The fourth issue in the series opens with our protagonist remembering a sweet moment with Brianna. Finally realising that things won’t ever get back to what they were. The main gang finally gets a lead on the Trickster and manages to learn what he looks like. Meanwhile, Brianna is on the run from the Warden for reasons yet unknown.

Right off the bat I want to say that the premise for this series is really darn interesting. Not only by itself but because of how writers Kyle Higgins and Joe Clark decided to expose the main lore for us readers from the get go. This plot could have easily been conducted with the “let’s keep everything secret until the last minute” in order to get some gasps and other intense reactions from the reveals. That being said, I do have a problem with the pace at which things are progressing. This is the fourth chapter and, honestly, I don’t care anymore about Christopher or his situation than I did in chapter two. Plus I don’t feel like the story itself has developed that much in this latest issue. Since the writers showed all their cards from the start, I’m confident that there’s an endgame to this slow paced approach, but that doesn’t necessarily help this issue.

Felipe Watanabe’s line art is pretty great. In the first issues in the series it reminded me a lot of Leinil Yu’s work specially in what concerned facial expressions. However, in the recent issues I’ve become more aware of Watanabe’s own particularities.. His motion depiction is alright but what I valued most in this issue was his background work. Since the comic contains scenes in both Paris and Cleveland, the change of background details were crucial for establishing where each scene took place.

Frank William’s colors are majestic. His work complements the line art fairly well and I loved the late afternoon lighting in Paris. I think it might be the most organic daytime depiction I’ve seen lately in a comic.  The lettering is quite standard which is not to say it’s bad. It gets the job done. As always, what I liked the most were the sound effects which were incorporated very discreetly specially regarding smaller noises which definitely adds to tension in certain scenarios.

Ordinary Gods #4 is overall a nice read. It doesn’t really progress the story other than the Trickster getting activated. If you’re following this series for the story, maybe wait until the next issue is out so you can read both at once. It is however a beautiful display in its lines, colors and letters.