Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Religion
Related: About this forumThe Goddamned #1 Breathes Bleak Life into Bible Stories (comic book)
This seems to have some potential and should be an interesting take. For those of you that aren't comic book nerds, Jason Aaron is a fantastic writer.
The Goddamned #1 could be classified as a post-apocalyptic story with its violent gangs of basically cavemen wandering around killing, fighting, and falling in their own excrement. Ironically, it is set in the time before the Great Flood and the classic story of Noahs ark. Writer Jason Aaron holds to a fairly literal and Creationist view of the book of Genesis as he sets The Goddamned about 1,600 years after the creation of the universe and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. Guera doesnt hold back in his depiction of the gruesome nature of the antediluvian world, and Aaron wisely rests on his art and Giulia Bruscos colors to tell the story of Cain, a man who is cursed by and curses God for his fate to wander the Earth after he slew his brother Abel.
The Goddamned #1 is a gruesome and earthy tale and mainly takes place at a watering hole literally called the shit pond. During this time, most people have been reduced to having sex (There is a reference to fuck huts.), fighting, eating, and excreting waste. There is little to separate humanity from animals, and Guera shows this in his art by giving the Bone Boys, a group of violent raiders that make any villain from the Mad Max franchise look like cuddly kittens in comparisons, twisted and exaggerated features to go with their basically gibberish dialect. These are people with no sense of morality, who assaulted a lone wanderer for a few strips of cloth and didnt even have the decency to kill him, but leave him in a pile of excrement. Their extremely disgusting nature is what makes the slightly over-long eight page fight sequence in the middle of the comic so cathartic when Guera takes a break from the big panoramas to get up close and personal with Cain, a man who cant be killed or harmed because of the curse God placed on him, and his desperate, brutal fight with the Bone Boys. Aaron and Guera even give some bonus points to readers familiar with the Book of Genesis by having Cain fight with metal weapons instead of bones and stone like the Bone Boys because his descendants invented metallurgy with both bronze and iron in the Biblical account.
The end of the book is filled with Cains actual wanderings with Guera depicting the bones, rocks, and creatures of this prehistoric world in tragic detail all culminating with the reveal of a mysterious monster, which echoes the descriptions of the Behemoth in the Book of Job or could possibly be Satan in the form of a giant Serpent. His journeys against a backdrop of red from Brusco contain terse, remorse filled narration as Cain realizes that his killing of Abel was a stupid act even if he was a bit of a holy rolling annoyance, but he isnt willing to make peace with God because of how bad the world has gotten calling the Almighty some dirty words out of his sheer hopelessness. And Aarons probably most subversive moment comes in the final pages with the introduction of a familiar Biblical figure that will blow the minds of kids at Sunday, Hebrew schools, and madrasas around the world if they ever read this comic.
The Goddamned #1 is a masterful, unrelenting portrayal of the world of the book of Genesis from artist rm Guera and colorist Giulia Brusco, who invoke the senseless violence, godlessness, and general lack of order that makes basically every dystopia youve read about look like a dystopia. Jason Aaron adheres pretty closely to the Biblical narrative while making his protagonist Cain a more complex figure than he was shown to be in Genesis 4 while still building off his internal feelings shown in this story. All in all, The Goddamned #1 shows that the Book of Genesis was the great grandfather of the post-apocalyptic genre and is filled with imagery that will challenge and disgust readers while making them ponder their own beliefs and relationships with classic texts. Plus Gueras art kicks ass!
The Goddamned #1 is a gruesome and earthy tale and mainly takes place at a watering hole literally called the shit pond. During this time, most people have been reduced to having sex (There is a reference to fuck huts.), fighting, eating, and excreting waste. There is little to separate humanity from animals, and Guera shows this in his art by giving the Bone Boys, a group of violent raiders that make any villain from the Mad Max franchise look like cuddly kittens in comparisons, twisted and exaggerated features to go with their basically gibberish dialect. These are people with no sense of morality, who assaulted a lone wanderer for a few strips of cloth and didnt even have the decency to kill him, but leave him in a pile of excrement. Their extremely disgusting nature is what makes the slightly over-long eight page fight sequence in the middle of the comic so cathartic when Guera takes a break from the big panoramas to get up close and personal with Cain, a man who cant be killed or harmed because of the curse God placed on him, and his desperate, brutal fight with the Bone Boys. Aaron and Guera even give some bonus points to readers familiar with the Book of Genesis by having Cain fight with metal weapons instead of bones and stone like the Bone Boys because his descendants invented metallurgy with both bronze and iron in the Biblical account.
The end of the book is filled with Cains actual wanderings with Guera depicting the bones, rocks, and creatures of this prehistoric world in tragic detail all culminating with the reveal of a mysterious monster, which echoes the descriptions of the Behemoth in the Book of Job or could possibly be Satan in the form of a giant Serpent. His journeys against a backdrop of red from Brusco contain terse, remorse filled narration as Cain realizes that his killing of Abel was a stupid act even if he was a bit of a holy rolling annoyance, but he isnt willing to make peace with God because of how bad the world has gotten calling the Almighty some dirty words out of his sheer hopelessness. And Aarons probably most subversive moment comes in the final pages with the introduction of a familiar Biblical figure that will blow the minds of kids at Sunday, Hebrew schools, and madrasas around the world if they ever read this comic.
The Goddamned #1 is a masterful, unrelenting portrayal of the world of the book of Genesis from artist rm Guera and colorist Giulia Brusco, who invoke the senseless violence, godlessness, and general lack of order that makes basically every dystopia youve read about look like a dystopia. Jason Aaron adheres pretty closely to the Biblical narrative while making his protagonist Cain a more complex figure than he was shown to be in Genesis 4 while still building off his internal feelings shown in this story. All in all, The Goddamned #1 shows that the Book of Genesis was the great grandfather of the post-apocalyptic genre and is filled with imagery that will challenge and disgust readers while making them ponder their own beliefs and relationships with classic texts. Plus Gueras art kicks ass!
Full Article
The art does look pretty awesome. I'll be picking up my copy today if anyone wants a review later.
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
2 replies, 1311 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (0)
ReplyReply to this post
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
The Goddamned #1 Breathes Bleak Life into Bible Stories (comic book) (Original Post)
Goblinmonger
Nov 2015
OP
Kali
(55,008 posts)1. looks interesting
not into comics too much, but I would buy those to check them out.
Goblinmonger
(22,340 posts)2. This is a pretty phenomenal team up
So if you are going to jump into comics, this would be a good one. I'll read it tonight and see if it lives up to the review. (I'm sure it will.)