By Jacob Cordas — So, before we get started with this review, fair warning: We are going to focus on two quotes and their two respective pages from Second Coming: Only Begotten Son #1.

1. “The truth? As stupid as it sounds, I guess I couldn't believe that the world was coming to an end for one simple reason... It had never ended before.”

Everyone on this page knows the end is nigh. Hell, these are scientists, the top scientists of the last era of a dying planet, the top scientists of the last era of a dying planet that could’ve stopped the coming calamity. Colored in faded purples, blues and oranges, the death of everything is unignorable. It’s heavy and haunting.

The two scientists sit across from each other. One is the other’s boss. The employee is desperate. He saw the apocalypse coming. He knew what was around the corner. He did the math and knew we came up short. And like a scientist from any decade of the last sixty years, he asks why. Why did you suppress this information? Why did you hide the road we were walking?

The boss looks into his drink in a moment beautifully rendered over two panels and says the respective quote. His failure to believe in the truth because it ruffled his preconceived biases has doomed everyone. You can see it in his face. It hangs over the panel barely fitting in all the misery. Every line under the eye, every dulled futurist element, every impossible thing is just a reminder of his own failure.

Everything dies and he is not okay with that. He apologizes the only way he can. Our protagonist leaves as does any chance of salvation. The panels perfectly guide you through this microcosm of a society imploding.

2. “Hey! Say what you want about me... Or my wife... But leave Crystal Kingdom Condos out of this! That's the sort of talk that scares away investors!”

It’s the worst kind of dinner party, where if you didn’t have to deal with the impossible in just a few hours you’d have to be blackout drunk to just burn through each excruciating second. All the culturally unique foods homemade and plated in the best crystalware will not cover up how much this all fucking sucks. Respectability will carry you through.

One of the dinner guests keeps talking profits, boasting of their finances. They make so much money off their condos, truly one of the worst possible jobs you could ever have. It’s honestly impressive the number of words this man can say with a boot so firmly placed in his mouth. He just keeps flapping his gaping maw over imaginary numbers that somehow equate to a better lifestyle. Respectability will carry you through.

But if everything’s ending, who cares about being respectable? All that matters is being true. So our scientist snaps and screams. He throws this man’s pointlessness in his face. He slams his uselessness in the face of the end of days. Melting away in the impossible heat as everything crumbles, nobody will care about profits.

With that harsh reality in his eyes, he says the respective quote. And our scientist snaps. In a moment pulled directly from Matthew 21:12, he flips the table. In one of the most beautiful panels in the entire comic, crystalware and soup goes flying everywhere without ever covering up the rage. It’s intense and dynamic, the bitterness of self-respect that finally found a way to bubble up at the last minutes. The colors compliment it flawlessly making everything feel a world away and yet so close.

They leave with soup on their face content with their own mediocrity, ready to go back to selling doves to a world that is in need of owls.

I chose to focus on these small moments (partially because I didn’t want this accidentally turn in 3300 words) because I want to highlight the depth of each person involved. I could wax poetic about the skill of every single person working on this. I could describe the most minute technique. But it pointless. This is a comic that succeeds on every page in every minute moment. Each of these moments is only possible because of the choices each person on the creative team made.

It’s a miracle they found each other. But it’s a pleasure to read what they made.

Overall: Second Coming: Only Begotten Son #1 is a wonderful continuation and a fantastic exploration of living in a dying society with absolutely zero real-world parallels. None whatsoever. Nope. Not a one. 9/10

REVIEW: Second Coming - Only Begotten Son #1

Second Coming: Only Begotten Son #1
Writer: Mark Russell
Artist: Richard Pace
Finisher: Leonard Kirk
Colorist: Andy Troy
Letterer: Rob Steen
Publisher: AHOY Comics
Price: $3.99
"The world's most dangerous comic book and the most lovely" (Comics Beat) returns for a new six-issue series, by superstar writer Mark Russell and artists Richard Pace and Leonard Kirk. The infant Sunstar will grow up to fulfill his destiny as Earth's most powerful superhero and roommate to Jesus Christ - but first, he and his parents must endure the mundane and the tedious on the last night of the doomed planet Zirconia. All AHOY comics feature extra prose stories and illustrations.
Release Date: Dec 16, 2020