God Country #3 Review
Written by Donny Cates
Art by Geoff Shaw
Colours by Jason Wordie
Letters and Design by John J. Hill
Reviewed by Lorna Maltman (maltmanlorna@gmail.com)
When I was about 13 or 14, my art teacher would get everyone to bring over their artwork at the end of the lesson and put it a table in the middle of the room. She would then get the whole class to rank them. My art was always in the bottom two (I am more of a doodler), but this peer- inflicted judgement meant that occasionally the people who would always be at the top of the ranking would be placed lower down. Once in a blue moon, but still. Much like those pieces of art, this third issue of God Country is rather average compared to the previous two- it didn’t leave me with the immediate need for the next issue, but it’s not a bad comic.
Cates does some good character work between Emmett and his son Roy, with Cates showing that just because this miracle happened and Emmett has his memories back, it does not make him any less of a flawed human who is tough on his son. This emotional dialogue is cut short by the God of death and his minions coming to claim back the sword, Valofax. This gives some good action beats and demonstrates the extent of the power of Valofax, but ultimately Emmett loses the battle in the cliff-hanger page, but not in the way you might suspect. This is all deftly done, but this issue just falls a little flat.
The art by Shaw and Wordie continues to be excellent, with the rough and gritty qualities of the Quinlans and Texan setting meshing with bright colours of the sci-fi elements to create great contrast and visual.
Verdict:
Give it a shot. Look, this isn’t brilliant, but this series so far has been great and this issue is no slouch, so if only for the sake of the rest of the series and the stunning art you should pick up what I am now calling Texan Thor.
