Ordinary Gods, Vol. 1: God Spark

Ordinary Gods #1-6

by Kyle Higgins, Joe Clark, Jana Tropper

The Luminary. The Prodigy. The Brute. The Trickster. The Innovator. Five gods from a realm beyond our own, leaders in the "War of Immortals." At least, they were before they were trapped, sent to a planet made into a prison, and forced into an endless cycle of human death and reincarnation.

Christopher is 22. He's got two loving parents and a 12-year-old sister. He works at a paint store. He's in therapy. He's one of the Five. To save everyone he cares about, Christopher will have to embark on a globe-spanning quest, reconnect with his past lives, and do the unthinkable: become a god again.

Collects ORDINARY GODS #1-6

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fantasy, Gods, Adventure

184 pages, Paperback

First published February 22, 2022

Reviews

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used to use the term 'aggressively mediocre' or 'aggressively okay' a lot in my reviews, so much that I had to retire it.. but..

.. aggressively okay is BACK, baby! Well, for this review, at least. Because the writing is okay, the art is okay, the ideas are derivative but okay, the worldbuilding is derivative but okay.. it's all VERY okay. It's just not very exciting or interesting. It's okayokayOKAY.

So these people are slumbering gods, Earth is their prison, and then they are awakened to their real identity. Why does nothing about their characters really change? Look at Greek mythology, gods are self-righteous, childish dicks! Why not play with them being thoroughly unhuman? So now they behave like humans, more or less.. which is okay, but not very interesting.

This whole book feels like it could've been simplified, and I'm normally not crazy about the ultraviolence, but here it would've fit. Like a punchier punk version of the book we now get.

There's a lot of extra material in the book, which I have to admit I haven't read, so maybe all the interesting stuff is in there? Come to think of it, why does this book get all the extras, and another recent Image book like Compass, that could've actually used the background material, gets nothing?

Then the book suddenly ends, on a note that feels like it's supposed to blow the bloody doors off of this arc, but it doesn't really. It's okay.

(Picked up a review copy through Edelweiss)

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Individual issue reviews: #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6

Total review score: 2.042

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ordinary Gods has all the hallmarks of a Mark Millar creation but with none of the zest. Ancient gods from another world where each nation is based on an emotion were kicked to an Earthly prison. Now, those gods are held in place (in unknowing human form) by wardens, but one otherworldly dude (Dominic) is here to set all those gods free (to retake their original world).

We follow a young man who is one of those unknowing human hosts. Dominic finds him, pairs him up with other god-humans, and they travel around the world, fighting wardens, finding gods , etc. The world-building feels overwrought - the mix of worlds, gods, and humans is too rich a stew for one volume. Affairs move at a Millar-pace, yet the book feels dull in parts. Surprises are few. The art is serviceable.

Ordinary Gods has been done before, and better. I'd grab the next volume if it crossed my path, but wouldn't search it out.

[Vanny (reading.halfling) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Das ist einer der wohl besten Comics in meinem Regal, vielleicht sogar der beste, den ich je gelesen habe. Die Zeichnungen sind bildgewaltig, die Handlung fesselnd. Durch die fast schon videospielähnlichen Sequenzen, in denen der Erzähler als Stimme aus dem Off das Worldbuilding, die Vorgeschichte und einige Charaktere ausführt, wird sehr viel der Handlung sehr schnell klar. Das war ganz angenehm, mal nicht das typische Fragezeichen im Hinterkopf zu haben, während sich der Comic langsam vorwagt in die Menge aus Antworten, die ich als Leserin suche. Dadurch konnte ich viel mehr in die tatsächliche Geschichte versinken, die meines Erachtens dadurch auch viel mehr Input (Handlung, Entwicklung) mitbringen konnte.
Ich bin einfach absolut verliebt in Handlung, Erzählstil und Optik!

[Alex Sarll]

Looking back at past stuff I've read from Kyle Higgins, the ones I liked I don't really remember (whatever happened to The Dead Hand?) and the ones that underwhelmed me loom all too large. Like the most recent on the latter list, Radiant Black, this one is a co-write. When did that become a thing, anyway, people who aren't even particularly big names suddenly getting in the collaboration habit? Initially, this had me underwhelmed too, seeming like a WicDiv riff (gods incarnate among us) except bolted in between an epic fantasy (the gods originally come from a land of castles, armies and such) and an action thriller (as soon as they know who they are in our world, there's lots of shooting and leaping out of windows). Oh, and also the gods who've awoken are regarded by much of the world as a Scientology-style cult, not least because they really do cut people off from their families, because often one of a god's family is a gaoler from the other world, assigned to keep an eye on them and kill them if they realise their divinity. So add a bit of Clean Room to the sources list too, I guess.

And as I was dismissively totting that list up, I realised...actually, once you've got that many disparate elements in play, it almost counts as original again, doesn't it? Which is still not to say this is brilliant. Yes, I have a natural affinity for any setting willing to go gnostic enough to say that this world is simply a prison for gods from the real world, because it explains so much about, well, everything. And I loved some of the complications introduced to what initially looks like the same old battle of good vs evil in a fantasy world, not least when it becomes clear that our hero, the leader of the gods rebelling against the tyranny there, was also literally Stalin in one of his intervening terrestrial lives. But fundamentally, I will always be a hard sell for yet another go-round of the old story where Regular Bod finds themselves part of Big Secret and has to go through the same old carousel of implacable killers and daring escapes and blah blah blah. As for the fantasy world...well. You know how – and let's leave aside here the tedious aberration of monotheism – gods each represent different aspects of humanity? This has short-circuited the symbol aspect of that, so the gods are called things like the Leader and the Innovator, and when we get an account of other-worldly developments which says "Savagery consumed all. Ideas, freedoms, innovations... anything deemed to be a threat to the One King's order was destroyed" – that isn't just a description of Putin's wank fantasies. The marauding kingdom is literally called Savagery. Which...I know epic fantasy can be a bit on the nose, but really? At its best it can play a little like Inside Out with spiky bitz - Worry warns that that the prison is failing, while Regret is complacent in the present because otherwise what would they regret in future? Mostly, though, it just feels like laziness which thinks it's found a terribly clever excuse.

(Edelweiss ARC)

[Brandon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Imagine you're walking through a shopping mall and some lady diagnoses you with godhood and now it's like WicDiv except instead of art and magic you've been isekai'd to Earth and your loved ones want to kill you. And instead of the nature of mortality and stories and stuff you get to borrow the knowledge of historical figures and punch things. And instead of being well written and well drawn you're boring as hell.

[Theediscerning · Rating 3 out of 5]

For once this fantasy book isn't just about one character finding out their true destiny, for the story also concerns someone very close to the people that have that revelation. The realm of the gods had been cloven into multiple parts, with two factions at loggerheads for not only control of their world but of Earth, which is a kind of celestial prison for some of them. Our main character, Christopher, a young American lad, is one of these god types (and also the reincarnation of Stalin, but we'll let that slide), and if awoken to his one true path in life and all his secret innate powers, then he will be a major player in the grand scheme of existence. And so will his younger sister, who is actually carrying the entity that acts as the last line of defence from the baddies who don't want his power to manifest. Can the sister and her side with the awareness of their tasks off him, or can he find the truth from the people with the equivalent of that there X-Men detector whatsit, and carry out his true fate?

This ultimately was a little too wishy-washy for its own good, drifting as the characters do into past scenes and characters, and giving us very little of the awkwardness Christopher would have felt given his situation. The number of people on each side that ultimately have minimal impact on things doesn't help, and if the book has flaws they're proven by how little we care come the ending, when things just basically stop with no surprise and little drama – a molehill-hanger, let's call it. Yes, lots of immortal people die (temporarily), but this all veers towards having the "Hellboy 2 Syndrome", where you can see so few humans in the story that the control of the Earth seems to have so little bearing on us and so we can find no empathy with anyone in the plot. With little engaging with us here, this feels like a borrow and never anything like an essential purchase.

[Rick Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

An overwhelmingly mediocre story built on a mediocre premise to begin with. Gods from another world/dimension/whatever have been deposed by other gods and now they have somehow been reincarnated as humans on Earth. But the other gods now want to root out their enemies completely, so the warfare has come down to our plane of existence. There are some neat twists here and there, but ultimately this is truly one of the comics of all time. The story is packed with fluff and there isn't enough time given to develop the large cast of characters.

I'm not a fan of the artwork here either. There has never been an Image "house style", but if there was one, this book would be it. Nothing about this comic really stands out as unique or worth seeking out.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish this was more interesting. Takes elements WicDiV did better, a bunch of gods in mortal bodies fighting against sleeper agents all looking for a muggufin to help them win a war. Bleh

[Pat]

Perfectly competent but missing some type of spark to make it unique. The story felt overly familiar though very readable. While the art told the story clearly with nice clean art work.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review submitted to Diamond Bookshelf for potential professional publication.

[Sarah Dawson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting premise, wish a little more time was spent developing the characters so that you could care about them.

[M.i. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Body hopping, time jumping gods … what’s not to love?

Yet despite how beautiful the art is, I wasn’t entirely sold on this series yet. Hoping the subsequent volume will do it for me.

[Steven W · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed it but not as much as I wanted to. It took too long to set up the premise.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another book that’s an interesting premise, but a narrative mess in the details.

[Josianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really cool story with beautiful art work. What more can I ask for in a graphic novel? Just finished 7&8. Can't wait for 9 to release in Oct!

[kaitlphere · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story went from a focused story about characters I cared about to a very big story with too many characters to keep track of.

[Adam Sequoyah · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF