Writer: Kyle Higgins & Joe Clark
Artist: Felipe Watanabe
Colorist: Frank Williams
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Backup Story: Jana Tropper
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 13, 2021
Reviewer: JR Huitt
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THE HOOK:
Ordinary Gods #4 from Image Comics arrives this week. It’s another installment from Kyle Higgins, Joe Clark, and the rest of their team as they tell the story of what happens when Gods are forced into ‘real’ lives. How they reconnect and react to one another is the driving force of the newest issue of Ordinary Gods!
MY IMPRESSIONS:
I really enjoyed the introduction of The Trickster this week in Ordinary Gods #4. With just his name, the character already draws parallels with Loki from Norse Mythology. However, Kyle Higgins and Joe Clark have gone out of their way to make sure that he stands on his own and is not merely a reflection of the more well-known character. From the first panel the character appears, he feels like he walked out of their minds and directly into the story.
I want to point out how much I enjoyed the backup story from Jana Tropper. Using a real-world event and person to build structure for the ongoing story being told in Ordinary Gods definitely deserves a callout. Splendid world-building in both the main story and the backup!
The only complaint that I have with how the book played out is with the dialogue. At one point, while two characters are conversing in a ‘translated’ language, one of the words is given in the original French. Just because I am able to easily translate it, doesn’t mean that I wanted to. It pulled me out of the scene and honestly affected how I finished the book. However, it is an issue for all comics it seems, not just this one.
THE ART:
Felipe Watanabe and Frank Williams do another great job illustrating Ordinary Gods #4. Unfortunately, they don’t have the opportunity to stretch their craft as they did in the previous issue. Not getting another scene set in the God-world in Ordinary Gods #4 probably won’t make a difference once this is collected. But it is definitely something that I missed this time out.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Ordinary Gods #4 completes two-thirds of the first arc of Image’s series. Higgins, Clark, and the rest of the team are firing on all cylinders. The book looks beautiful and reveals additional information of subsequent reads. I can’t wait to see where this leads and hope that I’m right and I’ve found a worthy successor to The Wicked + The Divine with Ordinary Gods!