50-Word (Comic) Review- The Goddamned #1: Violently naked, foul-mouthed and very, very good.

Writer: Jason Aaron
Art: R.M. Guera
Colours: Giulia Brusco
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: 11th November 2015



Progressive PC infiltration destroyed my comic-book pull list, whittling it down to almost nothing. Just tell me a story, please, make it good, don’t rely on quips, and leave statism, feminism and collectivism out of it. That’s all that I want. Does this one do it? Surprisingly, yes, it does.



Rating: 9/10

I was in two minds about buying ‘The Goddamned #1’. Writer Jason Aaron, during his Marvel Thor run, wrote Thor as a soldier flying around the world (representing America) and fighting evil dictators. By doing so his Thor came to represent US imperialism, and gave credence to the lie that has justified the US setting the Middle East on fire and ‘accidentally’ creating ISIS. You know the lie, that wars happen because the ‘good guys’ (the US) want to make the world a better place, and to get rid of evil dictators. It’s a ridiculous lie, mainly because the US supports all sorts of crazy dictators (Saudi Arabia) all over the world and is more than happy to do business with them, and I don’t want to see it again in my comic books. We need to get beyond that very basic, dumbed down version of reality that is pushed on the mainstream media, and when I see mainstream idiot lies parroted in my comic books it instantly turns me off the books. There was also the fact that he turned the ultimate symbol of Norse masculinity (Thor) into a woman, thus bowing to the femiNazi’s who are doing a very good job of destroying mainstream comic books right now. Plus, I read the previews of this book, and because it’s a story about our pre-flood civilisation I figured that Aaron is bound to be a trendy liberal atheist and take the opportunity to cr*p all over the Bible. But now that I’ve read it, I’m glad that I took a risk and gave it a chance. The story, to sum it up very succinctly, reads like a Bible story with naked, violent, sweary blokes in it. There are no moments of social justice, no moments of PC pandering, and no moments of atheist having a go at God stuff. The main protagonist is Cain (the first murderer), the story is linear, easy to follow and interesting, and the art has great colouring and an edge to it that’s perfect for a brutal story about the moral decline of early man. The Goddamned #1 is about a time when things on Earth were so bad that God decided that he’d had enough of it all, and had to wipe the slate clean and start all over again. Look at the world today, and ask yourself this question: What must he think of us today? Anyway, it’s a top book, very good, and I enjoyed it very much. If you haven’t got it, get it. That’s it, end of review, thank you Mr. Aaron.

50 Word Review: The Covenant #4- Swords and Sorcery, Bible Style

Writer: Rob Liefeld
Art: Matt Horak
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: 14th October 2015



Philistines sacrifice virgins to beasts, an offering to snake god Dagon, the power of the arc, of Jehovah is unleashed, a plague strikes the Philistines, an earthquake causes chaos, true God Jehovah favours the Israelites, is this truth, or Israelite propaganda? We’ll never know, history is an agreed upon lie.



Rating: 8/10

There are lots of beasts, monsters and brutal death scenes in this Bible story, so much so that it reads like a very contemporary swords and sorcery text. There’s even a role for warrior women as well, the kind of role that you get in modern feminist texts like Gail Simone’s Red Sonja, with women fighting as warriors and going toe to toe against the men. It’s an exciting book, but for the first time it’s starting to read like propaganda that a religious group would put out after a victorious battle against their enemies, where they portray the real ‘God’ as being on there side, working with them, and helping them to destroy their enemies. It’s fascinating stuff, and well worth picking up, not just for the big battles, beasts and warrior heroes/heroines, but because it’s a Bible story, it’s teaching you something about world history, something of real importance (even if it is the propaganda of a victorious people), and that’s a lot more than can be said for most comic books.

Review: The Covenant #2- A Godless Society is a Vulnerable Society

Writer: Rob Liefeld
Artist: Matt Horak
Colours: Jeremy Colwell
Letters: Chris Eliopolous
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: 8th July 2015



I found issue #2 of The Covenant to be far more accessible, easy to read, and enjoyable than issue #1. The narrative is linear, uncluttered and concise, so when events unfold it’s easy to correlate cause and effect, and to enjoy it as it happens.

The theme of the book is about what happens to a people when they become decadent, complacent and lose their faith in God. Loss of faith brings judgement onto a people. A people without faith are weakened and vulnerable to attack. Enemies seize on this weakness and take what is most precious to that people. In this book it is the powerful military weapon, the Ark of the Covenant.

The Ark of the Covenant

The ark is a devastating weapon on the battlefield. The Hebrew people have used it before, and it has always given them victory, but this time it fails them. They call on its power, but it does not respond. Its carriers are slain, and the ark is captured, taken from the battlefield, and is now in possession of the snake-worshipping enemy of the Hebrews, the Philistines.

‘The ark is but a symbol. Without faith it is an empty vessel.’

The Hebrew people lost faith, and so their great weapon no longer protected them, that is why it was taken, that is why it did not work as it did before. A faithless people that has abandoned their God will no longer be protected, and they will become vulnerable to the enemies that were previously defeated through the power of faith.

Sounds fair to me.

Issue #2 of the Covenant concludes with the defeated Hebrews re-evaluating their defeat, appointing a new leader, and plotting to regain the ark, but will it ever work again for a faithless people who have deserted their God?

We’ll see, and as I’m not as familiar with this Bible story as I want to be, I cannot wait to see what happens next in this fascinating and massively insightful historical story.

I’m very much enjoying this book. It’s teaching me a lot, and as a child raised in a secular/atheistic society I very much appreciate having Bible stories in comic book form where I can read, learn and enjoy the many moral, philosophical and spiritual lessons that were absent in my early life.

The art by Matt Horak helps tremendously, and when I purchased the book today in my comic book shop, the guy working there (Hi Troy) commented that the art looks like some of Becky Cloonan’s friendly faced, accessibly cute work. I agree. It does look like some of Cloonan’s cute and cuddly art-work, and that is a huge plus as it brings an element of accessibility to the book, injecting a ‘fun’ factor that might have been lacking if the art had a darker, ‘edgier’ feel to it.

Because of the accessibility of the artwork you can read ‘The Covenant’ just as you would read any other contemporary, mainstream superhero book. The added benefit is that you are getting a story that is saying something important about man and his relationship with God, and not just another feminist leaning social justice warrior comic book that is pushing politically correct stories that have zero relevance to anybody.

I understand all too well that the atheist, Dawkins reading, arrogant, dismissive, patronising, science knows best, Marxist, feminist, liberal, progressive comic book readers (and that’s 90% of them today) won’t even consider reading a comic book that is based on a Bible story. That’s their loss. I hope they enjoy their teen girl superhero books, but I’m after something with a bit more depth and meaning these days, and a comic book like ‘The Covenant #2’ is perfect for me.

If you take a chance on this book you’ll get some great art and a story that shows the inevitable consequences that will befall a society when secularism, greed and commerce become the driving motivations behind human interaction. Nothing is new under the sun, and what happened before will surely happen again. That’s a lesson that we need to relearn, and that’s the lesson that is being re-told in this essential comic book.



Rating: 10/10 (Insightful, accessible and enjoyable)