REVIEW: Godkillers #3 succumbs to the ordinary
Godkillers #3 is out June 24, 2020.
By Benjamin Morin — Godkillers is a series that has flown under my radar since its launch earlier this year, and Godkillers #3 brings it back from its brief hiatus. Our story continues to follow Abdul Alhazred and his team's encounters with ISIS's mythological threats. At its best, it takes inspiration from similar monster hunting works such as Supernatural, Grimm, and Challengers of the Unknown; at its worst, it comes off as another generic action/horror tinged comic.
Godkillers #3 picks up immediately from the previous issue as Alhazred must survive his first encounter with a djinn. From here the team must regroup and continue on their mission to put a stop to ISIS's plan to weaponize ancient artifacts. It remains unclear, as it has from the beginning, to what extent ISIS's masterplan threatens the world at large, but our heroes remain determined to prevent this great evil.
When it comes to narrative and dialog, this series is not going to blow you away. The issue moves the story forward in a meaningful way yet still retains only generic action beats. I cannot help but think this is partially due to the dialog. The series is very clearly a team book with Alhazred serving as the audience surrogate by being the newest team member among his fellow servicemen and women. Despite giving each team member their own descriptor box — which appears almost every time someone steps into the panel — all the dialog blends together which makes it impossible to discern one character's voice from another. Alongside the dialogue problems, the comic contains pacing and transition issues. The transitions from scene to scene are jarring, as noted in our Godkillers #1 review, and this has not improved at all. For example, in one flip of a page our team goes from a monster-infested tunnel system to a heavily fortified building overrun with ISIS with no explanation. These disorienting jumps in the story have been constant throughout the series and serve only to screw up the pacing.
Despite the issues I have with the narrative execution, the concept behind the series remains interesting. Most modern mythological adventures pull from the Greeks, Romans, or even Norse whereas this series consistently pulls from Middle Eastern Islamic and Jewish mythology. This keeps the roster of monsters fresh and sparked a personal interest in me for this mythological canon.
Maan House's art picks up the slack of the rest of the issue. His style captures the grit and destruction one would expect from a military action series. However, his creature designs do slack in this issue compared to previous entries. His design in Godkillers #1 and #2 of the Penangglan still haunts me when i think about it, yet in this issue his depictions of the Roc and Djinn seem pedestrian. Everyone has seen giant bird-creatures before or the pointy eared demon Djinn, and as a result it disappoints one to not see the same level of unique designs found previously. Cabrera’s coloring should also be noted. His muted color palette and shadows accentuate the grim and gritty vibe of the series. He also pays special attention to give the unknown monsters and artifacts eerie glowing auras that leap off the page. In spite of the narrative hangups, the artwork is the saving grace of this series.
Unfortunately, I left his issue not caring about what happened next. The story has done nothing to make me care for the heroes and offers little reason for anyone to continue reading. The strongest points remain the untapped mythos of the Middle East and the art style. I feel this series has tons of potential with its commitment to bringing foreign myths to the spotlight. It also has a very diverse team with varying beliefs that could set the stage for some very interesting human drama and ideological conflict. After this lackluster third issue that refuses to correct the errors of past issues, I find it hard to recommend this to new or returning readers.
Overall: Godkillers #3 falls victim to the same missteps as previous issues and slides into the generic action/horror genre. By failing to make readers care about the characters or action on the small scale of issue to issue, it becomes hard for me to recommend anyone put much stock into this series' future. 6/10
Godkillers #3 REVIEW
Godkillers #3
Writer: Mark Sable
Artist: Maan House
Colorist: Hernan Cabrera
Letterer: Thoms Mauer
Publisher: AfterShock Comics
Price: $3.99
Insurgents in Syria are using a djinn as a weapon of mass destruction. Can the elite special forces unit known as the Godkillers help their Kurdish allies defeat this supernatural menace? Or, like other foreign interventions, will they only make things worse?
Release Date: June 24, 2020
Buy It Digitally: Via comiXology
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Benjamin Morin currently studies Journalism/Mass Media at Johnson University. He is a comic book enthusiast and aspiring filmmaker.