Second Coming Reviews 

Pick of the Week: “Second Coming” #1

By | July 11th, 2019
Posted in Pick of the Week, Reviews | % Comments

After an online petition, months of controversy, and a change in publishers, “Second Coming” is finally here, and it’s a glorious revelation. (Warning: there’s no way to describe how incredible this book truly is without the mention of at least a few minor spoilers.)

Cover by Amanda Conner
and Paul Mounts
Written by Mark Russell
Illustrated by Richard Pace and Leonard Kirk
Colored by Andy Troy
and Richard Pace
Lettered by Rob Steen

AHOY is proud to present—for the first time anywhere—the series everyone’s talking about, by award-winning writer Mark Russell (Snagglepuss, The Flintstones) and artist Richard Pace (Pitt, New Warriors)! God commands Earth’s mightiest super-hero, Sunstar, to accept Jesus as his roommate and teach him how to use power in a…more powerful way. Jesus, shocked at the way humans have twisted his message over two millennia, vows to straighten them out. This deluxe first issue features 30 pages of story.

In the top left corner of the collage-like first page of “Second Coming” #1, Jesus sits in a beanbag chair, his surprisingly hairy legs crossed casually in the foreground. In one hand he holds a unfurled parchment scroll. In the other, he grips a pen. He stares the scroll intently, lost deep in thought, presumably rereading a passage he wrote some time earlier. His pen is poised and ready to make necessary edits or changes. It’s his voice and his words that form the opening monologue.

“In the beginning, God was lonely,” he quips.

Notably, if it weren’t for the bright pink pompom that dangles from the end of his pen, he might almost look like a scholar, or perhaps a scribe, carefully reviewing his work. Instead, unceremoniously sprawled in his beanbag chair, he exudes the air of someone still working to process their feelings. The scroll isn’t so much a treatise as it is a private journal, purely intended to capture complicated, messy emotions that aren’t really meant to be shared.

Elsewhere in the collage, an artistic, 2-D rendition of curved space-time – complete with geometric, swirling gridlines – is juxtaposed next to God’s stern, scowling face as he bellows from the clouds, “Do not be afraid!” As we come to learn later, this is pretty much God’s standard greeting. One that consistently and most definitely provokes the opposite response from what He intended. In this instance, predictably, Adam and Eve shield their faces, cowering beneath the intense, blinding light that emanates from God’s holy visage. “Of course,” Jesus cracks wise, “He not only wanted people to think of him as a friend, but also worship him as their Almighty God, not realizing you can’t really have both.”

Honestly, it’s hard to overstate how perfectly the first page encapsulates and frames the rest of the issue. As with the rest of the book, the writing, artwork and letters all combine seamlessly to establish the tone and define the dynamic that carry the rest of the book – if not the entire 6-issue series.

Writer Mark Russell’s witty, insightful script is nothing short of brilliant. It’s sarcastic and snarky, no doubt, but it’s never condescending or mean-spirited. The dialogue is laugh-out-loud funny, yet remains character driven. In fact, it feels pretty authentic and very much in line with the story the comic creators set out to tell. In other words, it’s not just a collection of ad hoc one-liners, cheap gags and comedic low-hanging fruit. Well, except in the case of God’s Forbidden Fruit, which is absolutely shaped like male and female genitalia – although it not particularly low hanging.

Honestly, if you’re determined to find disrespect, or even blasphemy, you won’t have to look very hard. The original CitizenGo petition expressed outrage over “a comic that features Jesus Christ as a clueless superhero sidekick.” It seems to me that fruit shaped like sex organs and a wine-soaked version of God with absolutely no qualms about dropping the F-bomb might be a tad more upsetting to the average Sunday school teacher, but maybe that’s me.

On the other hand, for a certain segment of youth pastors, I could see this comic becoming a great – albeit highly provocative – platform for opening up a discussion about some pesky and persistent philosophical questions. Yes, the comic’s morality is a bit too simplistic. Obviously, Russell’s take on the Bible is overly reductive. But in the end it’s also not particularly off base theologically. In fact, it satirizes and skewers many of the same inconsistencies and contradictions inherent to the Abrahamic religions that theologians and clerics have grappled with for centuries. Not for nothing, it also positions Jesus as a pretty hip, compassionate, anti-establishment Redeemer who embodies the tenets outlined in the Sermon on the Mount.

On top of everything else – controversy aside – this book is objectively brimming with world class cartooning. The paneling and page layouts are great. The splash pages are gorgeous and perfectly timed. And Richard Pace’s illustrations, with help from Leonard Kirk and Andy Troy, deftly interweave three very distinct aesthetics into a single, cohesive whole that wonderfully differentiates the major narrative threads. First, there are the loose, sepia-drenched sketches of Biblical flashbacks. Juxtaposed next to that is the mystical, metaphorical geometry of God’s celestial kingdom. Finally, there is bright, colorful world of classic superhero comics, drawn with bold, clear lines and minimal, yet well placed details. In short, it’s great execution of a pretty damn good idea. Certainly, it won’t connect with every reader, but then again, that was never really the intention in the first place.

Final Verdict: 9.8 – Over 2,000 years in the making, “Second Coming” #1 is a nearly infallible debut and a book that is sure to be on many best of lists at the end of the year.


//TAGS | Pick of the Week

John Schaidler

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