The Goddamned Volume 2 Featured Reviews 

“The Goddamned: Virgin Brides” #1

By | July 2nd, 2020
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

Note: spoilers and amateur biblical exegesis lie ahead

When we last wandered the world of ”The Goddamned” in 2015, the rules of the game were simple. Fight monsters in the morning, huddle beneath your acrid shawl at night, and kill or be killed — regardless of the time of day. If we were to make a list of “comic book worlds we’d least like to live in,” the world of “The Goddamned” would probably be at the top. Luckily, rough living makes for good reading. And by that metric, “The Goddamned: Virgin Brides” #1 is top shelf literature. Jason Aaron and R.M. Guéra’s follow-up to the original limited series builds on the strengths of the first iteration, adding a dash more in terms of twisted horror and cosmic mystery.

What this means is that “The Goddamned: Virgin Brides” #1 is beautiful–if at times terrifying–to look at, with an intriguing story in a unique world. All that being said, we have no idea what’s going on in this comic. But we have some ideas.

Cover by R.M. Guéra

The Goddamned: Virgin Brides #1
Written by Jason Aaron
Illustrated by R.M. Guéra
Colored by Giulia Brusco
Lettered by Jared K. Fletcher
Reviewed by Kobi Bordoley

Writer JASON AARON and artist R.M. GUÉRA return to the stark and brutal world of THE GODDAMNED for the long-awaited second chapter of their biblical-noir epic.Genesis 6:4. “…the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men. And they bore children to them…”In the time before the Great Flood, the world of man is a place of wanton violence and unbridled depravity. But hidden high atop a mountain, there is a very different sort of world. One without men. Here, the holy sisters at a secret nunnery live in paradise, a new Eden, rearing their flock of orphaned girls to embrace their future as blessed Brides of the Sons of God. But when Sharri and Jael, two girls on the cusp of flowering, uncover what it truly means to become a Bride, they realize there’s only one way to escape the bonds of matrimony: run like hell.

Before getting deep in the plot weeds of “The Goddamned: Virgin Brides” #1, we can talk plainly about the art. If there’s anyone who can translate Aaron’s story into a living world, it’s long-time collaborator Guéra, who worked with him on “Scalped” between 2007 and 2012, and whose harrowing art undeniably elevated that project. In “The Goddamned: Virgin Brides” #1, Guéra has the difficult task of building a “biblical” world that feels original. That might not sound so special, but considering that the bible, in a general sense, is one of the most well known and frequently imagined fantasy settings (there, I said it) in the Western canon, it’s more of a task than it seems.

Guéra’s vision for “The Goddamned: Virgin Brides” #1 is painstakingly detailed, and the world building pulls from a variety of vaguely early Bronze Age cultures, dipping into Mesopotamian/Levantine visual cues. Think carvings in big stone boulders, wide grasslands, ornate spears, that kind of thing. Guéra and Brusco’s big success is that all of these visual cues blend together to create something that feels unique and inspired. Guéra warps the landscape as he needs, breaking it up with sharply angled plateaus and sundered mesas that add a subtle edginess to the world of “The Goddamned: Virgin Brides” #1. On top of all this, Guéra layers a hearty splash of phallic and yonic imagery, a smart choice for a story centered on virginity.

While the art presents a coherent visual language, the spoken language of the “The Goddamned Virgin Brides #1” is sometimes disjointed. Character dialogue fluctuates between the archaic, “She remains undefiled by the touch of man?” moments and the off the cuff, “I didn’t sleep for shit,” comments. Of course, the ages and backgrounds of the characters saying these things vary widely. It wouldn’t make sense for everyone to have the same diction, but at times the gulf between the languages spoken feels jarring. Similarly, Aaron pulls some character names straight from biblical sources–Jael, Ester, Leya–while others, such as the titular Lillian, feel a bit out of place and awkwardly contemporary. While these linguistic disruptions are probably intentional, they feel more distracting than anything else.

Continued below

And now we can talk about what actually happens in the story, because if you’ve read it already…what the hell? And if you haven’t, here come the spoilers. Be aware that this story deals with some pretty heavy child marriage themes, which may be over the line for some.

We’ll be honest–petulant, cannibal, mutant babies were not on our list of potential villains for the “The Goddamned: Virgin Brides” #1. Who are they? What ritual did our protagonists stumble upon that brought forth such wretched creations? Diving into the real world lore of Genesis gives us some openings.

“The Goddamned: Virgin Brides” #1 opens with the quotation, “The sons of God came unto the daughters of Men, and they bare children to them,” from Genesis 6:4. This is a particularly fun line. Before this, everything that happened in Genesis was typical morality tale stuff. Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, that kind of thing. Then we get to the sixth chapter, and the truly wacky fantasy elements drop in like an act of God. Sons of God procreating with women, all in a kind of random, throwaway line? Who wrote this fan fiction?

But it gets spicier. In many translations, directly preceding the Sons of God invocation comes a reference to the mysterious Nephilim. Mentioned directly only a handful of times in the original text, the jury’s still out on who the Nephilim were. Disgraced angels? Fallen warriors? Indigenous inhabitants of a distant land? Giants? Are they synonymous with the sons of God, and some kind of hideous mortal-immortal hybrid? Ancient Aliens mind freaks and legit biblical scholars haven’t stopped arguing about it, so clearly its fertile ground for dark fantasy tropes. Aaron and Guéra capitalize on this to great effect. I mean, here we are, trying to piece together what biblical allusions birthed the monsters in “The Goddamned: Virgin Brides” #1 and what they could possibly mean.

Like the characters in the story, we’re inclined to run like hell. But we’ll be looking back over our shoulders as we sprint to safety–this story has too much going on to stay away. Despite the sometimes stilted language, “The Goddamned: Virgin Brides #1” is worth a look for longtime Aaron fans and newcomers alike. There’s powerful magic at foot here.

Final Verdict: 8.5. Radiant with inventive lore that delivers on its grim premise, “The Goddamned: Virgin Brides” #1 has heart and horror worth exploring.


Kobi Bordoley

comic reviews, as a treat.

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