From 2007 to 2012, writer Jason Aaron and artist R. M. Guéra delivered the terrifying and gritty Vertigo series, “Scalped.” Now, they’re teaming up again to look at the Old Testament in their new Image book, “The Goddamned.” Is this a strong new step in their creative relationship? Is there anything new they can bring to the Book of Genesis altogether?
Written by Jason Aaron
Illustrated by R. M. Guéra and Giulia BruscoWriter JASON AARON & artist R.M. GUÉRA, the creators of the seminal crime series SCALPED, reunite for a new ongoing series of stark and brutal biblical noir, which begins with a SPECIAL OVER-SIZED DEBUT ISSUE featuring thirty pages of story.
“And the earth was filled with violence.”
Genesis 6:11Its 1655 years after Eden, and life on Earth has already gone to hell. The world of man is a place of wanton cruelty and wickedness. Prehistoric monsters and stone-age marauders roam the land. Murder and destruction are the rule of the day. Humankind is a failed experiment. This is life before the Flood. The story of man on the verge of his first apocalypse. Welcome to the world of THE GODDAMNED.
It’s always interesting to watch a writer/artist collaboration develop and evolve over time and through different titles. Compare the work that people like Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, and Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips produced at the beginning of their creative relationship with the stuff they’ve since released. Watch how they feed off each other, grow more comfortable with their storytelling techniques, and, most importantly, challenge one another. Jason Aaron and R. M. Guéra are definitely at a fascinating stage of their collaborative output, which comes out in full force with “The Goddamned.”
From its opening moments, Aaron and Guéra make it clear they’re channeling spaghetti Westerns and samurai films rather than some Cecil B. DeMille Bible epic. They center the book around a lone wanderer rising out of a shit-turned watering hole without so much as a scratch on him, even though this local gang recently slit his throat and tossed him away. He heads to this wicked town and spends the next dozen pages delivering a ferocious beatdown. Aaron and Guéra’s portrayal of the Old Testament is true to form: brutal, primal, grotesque.
This inaugural issue doesn’t do much to set up a story. In fact, it’s difficult to even theorize what this thing is going to be about. Aaron and Guéra throw some horrifying creatures, roving marauders, and deformed children into the mix, but there’s not much to the narrative they seem to want to explore.
Instead, this issue is an exercise in tone and setting. Guéra and Aaron go savage with the centerpiece action sequence. Guéra draws all the characters, with the exception of the lone wanderer — whose identity is pretty easy to figure out well before its revelation — as like these Neanderthal creatures, huge and hulking and vicious; somewhere in-between a nightmare caveman and R. Crumb’s “Book of Genesis” character renditions. Aaron has the character speak in short, blunt statements, peppered with expletive exclamations. Even the desert-earthy color palette from Guilia Brusco hammers home the ferociousness of this world.
A long action scene and some dark glares don’t necessarily make a good read, but Aaron and Guéra’s combined storytelling abilities keep the book from being uninteresting. They give themselves thirty pages to set up and settle into their Old Testament Western, and not a moment of that ever feels wasted. Aaron, who especially at the beginning of a project tends to over-narrate and explain the situation, almost entirely vanishes from the middle section of the issue. Guéra’s compositions and layouts, with a tendency toward tall, vertical panels, illustrate the tone and feel of the narration rather than mimic what’s going on in the caption boxes.
For “The Goddamned” #1, Jason Aaron and R. M. Guéra double down on the aesthetic and tone of the book, although at the expense of the story. There’s plenty about how this book will feel, yet not much about what it will be. However, their trust in each other is more than enough to make the book intriguing. “The Goddamned” can easily spin off into four dozen different directions, but with the control these two are showing, it’ll probably be worth it to pay attention.
Final Verdict: 7.5 – Not yet much of a story but still a well delivered book; will undoubtedly read better as a collected whole.
