“Divinity” #0

What happens when the divine goes for a walk? An artistic and meditative journey that plays with reader expectation.

Cover by Juan Jose Ryp with Gabe Eltaeb

Written by Matt Kindt
Illustrated by Renato Guedes
Lettered by Dave Lanphear
AN EPIC JUMPING-ON POINT LEADING DIVINITY THROUGH THE WHOLE OF THE VALIANT UNIVERSE!

New York Times best-selling writer Matt Kindt (X-O MANOWAR, Mind MGMT) and explosive artist Renato Guedes (BLOODSHOT REBORN, Wolverine) present an awe-inspiring introduction to the largest independent superhero universe in comics – as told through the eyes of Valiant’s most powerful cosmic force!

DIVINITY, a lost Russian cosmonaut newly returned to Earth with god-like powers, has successfully restored the world to order after the reality-altering event known as the Stalinverse. But how can a man – even one with near-divine abilities – know for certain that the planet has been truly restored in full? To make sure, Divinity must bear witness to the world as it now stands – heroes, villains, gods, and all – to ensure the rightful order of the Valiant Universe!

From BLOODSHOT to FAITH to NINJAK and dozens of surprise guest stars, traverse the world of Valiant’s most enduring icons as DIVINITY guides a standalone entry point into the most acclaimed publishing line in comics today!

Artist Renato Guedes is the key to the trick this issue pulls. His lush, flowing water colors, blead and threaten to mix together even when pages have clearly defined panels. While obviously more dynamic and subject oriented than an abstract expressionist like Mark Rothko, that connection is representative of the issues overall through line of ‘fusion.’ Guedes art reads like an experiment in classic pop art with the color play of abstract expressionism.

These influences come together to make a very artistic, but still clearly comic book pages. Letterer Dave Lanphear oes a good job keeping Matt Kindt’s minimal scripting out of the way in the moments where Abram Adams is alone. You could easily read this book in a very traditional manner, but that would be missing the point. In a gallery, you don’t just stand still and gaze at a piece of abstract expressionism for 20 seconds and move on like you would in some early modern Western European exhibit. The best galleries have tiny spaces (almost like big closets) where you can sit, gaze, and contemplate the color play and the subtle variations that come out after you look for an extended period. Like Abrams and his pulp novels, sit back and really memorize the colors, contemplate the figures, values, maybe eat a brownie.

Guedes single page introduction of Bloodshot has all the fury of the characters many runs by just playing with the reds and oranges that swirl around his cold pale body. That warm variation in the upper half of the page contrasts and complements the darker blues of the lower half, creating a bisected page for a character at war with himself. Not every page is like this, but there are individual panels that really bring out this quality.
Reading “Divinity” #0 in this contemplative flow is how Kindt and Guedes put you in the point of view of its divine narrator. While not violently schizophrenic there is an unattached ebb and flow, the turn of the page more often leads to an entirely new and different scene or scenario. Abram Adams can be everywhere and nowhere at the turn of a page.

All of these little gestures are meant to echo one of comics most influential characters in the past 30 years, Doctor Manhattan. While Geoff Johns is using the character to write a meta text on the soul of DC Comics, Kindt’s run with Abram Adams is a real reaction to that character. Having a character like that, much less two or three, is destabilizing for Valiant – which is grounded in pseudo-science … and magic. They are in the parlance of video games “OP” (over powered), so extreme in their power levels Ninjak is just happy he’s on “their side,” even if that paradigm doesn’t exist to Abrams or Myshka. Following in the tradition of Moore’s Manhattan, all this power seems to create a distance-disconnect to the world around him. Kindt’s sparse but introspective dialog gives Abram a voice that can be read as cold. Guedes art moves the characters through space seemingly at the speed of thought, or a brush stroke, as he voyeuristically takes stock of the world. While this issue isn’t a linear-non-linear exercise like Doctor Manhattan on Mars or “Pax Americana” this issue clearly evokes those sensibilities.

He even, pompously, declares himself the editor of this world. A declaration that scratches the fourth wall a bit, but also feels fitting considering Kindt seems to have written half of Valiant’s output at points.

All of these facets appear to come together to cast Divinity as just a Manhattan analog. That’s not really the Valiant way, however. While as a publisher and group of storytellers they are undoubtedly influenced by post-modernist thought, they are the opposite of ironic in their appreciation and storytelling. Quite the contrary, they are earnest and blunt in their thematics. With characters like Bloodshot, they clearly aren’t the type of comics “Kim & Kim” writer Magdalene Visaggio emphasized as part of the New Sincerity, (Valiant is still not very diverse at all levels of the process) but they exist in a similar space even as they are aesthetically diverge. It’s the kind of space that affords Kindt room to reflect Doctor Manhattan through Abram Adams. Where he can counter the statement, Moore made with a question: what if you had all that power but were still as emotionally vulnerable a normal person?

He is one of three supreme, near omnipotent, beings in the universe. The self-professed editor of this story universe. After an entire issue of checking in and keeping the clock gears spinning, a spring is sprung, like an RKO out of nowhere. Kindt’s late page reveal makes the divine very human, all that power and now you’re going to be Father.* All the cool flow from Guedes art looking back presages this disruption. The watercolors bleed everywhere, for all of its presentation, it was never as orderly as Abrams or the comic makes you think.

*Kind of like how major games are going through a “Dad” phase, Valliant’s cast seems to be dealing fatherhood all at once

“Divinity” #0 plays the role of zero issue well. It can’t truly start things, but it sure can be used to tee up the emotional core of the series. A series, that by all indications from previews will be Jack Kirby’s “Fourth World” meets a Morrison LSD trip. Hopefully it will be as Kindt said “It’s going to be as big and crazy as we can make it — BUT — with purpose. There are real characters with real heart in this thing.” Because “Divinity” #0 sets up “Eternity” to have a real big heart.

Final Verdict: 7.5 – Maybe not the best introduction to the Valiant U there is, but a great introduction to the world of “Divinity” and soon “Eternity.”