“The Gods are always beautiful, And the Gods are always dead, ”
There is so much about this that I loved, but it didnt quite come together enough to make me care about it all that much.
Ewings imagination is terrific, and the world hes developing here is dense, fascinating, and steeped in anticapitalistic ideals among other timely themes that Im all about.
But the character work is painted in broad strokes, and motivations never coalesce in a way that makes them feel tangible, I like the characters well enoughIm just not remotely invested in them at the end of the day,
It does help that the art has one of the more distinct styles Ive seen in a while, Simone Di Meo with some coloring help from Mariasaea Miotti makes the comic look like an anime in stillform, which works surprisingly well, I dug a lot of his layouts, too, as they gave the action a sharp sense of motion and energy, Its the panels themselves that didnt work for me, not entirely, Theres so much packed into each frame that it sometimes made it difficult to keep track of where the characters are in the space around them.
Part of it is the colors, which are so vibrant theyre almost distracting, but most of it is the “blureffect” used a lot, It works for some scenes, but for others, it only muddles the scene,
For a debut, this is a mixed bag, Ewing is a great writer, and the way the volume ends has me intrigued enough to stick around for the next one, but I hope the series can better define itself outside its admittedly stellar premise.
Im giving this.stars, but I'll round up because the ending did surprise me, and I gotta see how it plays out, Looks nice, but the story telling was a bit confusing for me, The first issue is astonishing and breathtaking, The whole premise is inconceivable and the consequencies immeasurable!
Then, an unneeded family drama bushwacks and hits heavily the whole plot, Until the last issue, it's an unfortunate trainwreck, . . Al Ewing's first creator owned effort at Boom! follows the crew of a salvage ship that liberates pieces of dead gods in order to sell them and keep the universe running.
The rules around salvaging these body parts are tight, and there's an unspoken history between the captain of the ship that we follow, and the captain of the guard that unfolds across this first arc as both parties do the unspeakable.
WOFTWTD is the most ungainly acronym I've had to type in a while, but it's a damn good book so I'll let it off.
The setup here is intriguing to say the least, and there's a lot to be inferred from what isn't explained just as much as what is.
I like that Ewing manages to create such a strange and interesting universe, and then chooses instead to focus on the interpersonal relationships between the crew and the law enforcement that hound them.
It's all very Star Trek, And in typical Star Trek fashion, where we end up is absolutely not where you thought we'd be going I'd never have guessed as to the way this first arc ends, and it really excites me as to what's in store next.
The art in WOFTWTD is literally out of this world, Simone Di Meo throws in all sorts of strange angles and perspectives that enhance the outer space setting, and the colours are all various shades of neon so the futuristic aspect is really played up.
It's a very good looking book if you enjoyed Di Meo's art on his Power Rangers run recently, then this will be right up your alley.
WOFTWTD flies at you full force, unapologetically crafting a galaxy worth of story opportunities and then taking all the ones you don't expect it to and it looks gorgeous while it does it.
Recommended, and definitely one to watch, Nice space opera! Our protagonists have a spaceship plying their trade of perhaps among other things carving up dead gods for meat, I'm pretty sure that's why their ship is called an autopsy ship, The gods just show up in space, always dead, and looking like superextragiant humans, Our crew, led by Captain Malik, is not all that prosperous, and have some shady practices, so they get crosswise with the law, specifically Malik's dead brother's fiancée.
Which makes it personal. We get backstory on Malik and his family, but otherwise not much worldbuilding,
I enjoyed the book, There was a lot of action and a fair amount of character building, though I can't say that I particularly liked anyone, The art was lovely in places, and a bit too dark and stylized to see what was going on in other places, I may or may not have given it four rather than three because I've read several graphic books lately without enough backstory to know what was going on, and this one filled in enough.
Every once in a while I come across a graphic novel series that makes me scratch my head, Im no genius, but Im not particularly dumb either, so Im not sure why I didnt get Al Ewing and Simone Di Meos “We Only Find Them When Theyre Dead”, which is my vote for, at the very least, the coolest title.
While colorful, Di Meos artwork reminds me of photostills from thes anime series “Battle of the Planets”, The whole thing has that kind of “anime” vibe to me, a style that isnt my favorite, Di Meo, it turns out also drew for “The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” graphic novel series, Totally makes sense. I used to watch, and love, “Battle of the Planets” as a kid, I have tried watching it as an adult, and it doesnt make a lick of sense, Thats kind of how I felt reading this comic book,
Ewing, whose work on “The Immortal Hulk” is great, is mystifyingly incomprehensible in this, I literally have no idea what is going on, Nevertheless, I will attempt to offer a synopsis,
Its far in the future, theth century to be exact, and humans have apparently depleted all natural resources from every inhabited galaxy.
I'm not sure how this is possible, but whatever, The only sources for food, minerals, and metals are ginormous corpses of ancient beings floating in deep space, They look like humans in space suits, but they are planetsized, And they are dead. Humans have taken to calling them “gods”,
Clearly or not, Ewing is making a notsosubtle statement about humanitys current spiritual malaise: “God is dead” and so forth, The fact that humans in the future scavenge dead gods for food and resources is rather telling, too, Humans are space maggots. In other words, we are nothing but lowlife scum, I totally get that.
So, thats the backdrop, The main story is about a fourperson crew of a spaceship called the Vihaan II, The captain wants to find a living god by traveling out into unexplored space, which is apparently illegal by galactic governmental laws, Why I dunno.
Some spacecop has a hardon for the captain, as his brother was her fiancee and she blames the captain for killing him, or something like that.
Ill be honest, I couldnt follow this storyline very well, All I know is she chases him through, like, four issues in order to kill him, Then, she gets killed by a meteor to the head,
The gods kind of remind me of that scene in “Guardians of the Galaxy” where the Guardians make a stop at a giant floating head called Knowhere, which was all that was left of ancient godlike beings.
I understood the storyline in that movie, though, Not so much in this graphic novel series,
I might read the next volume in this series, It will either hopefully clear up some of the confusion or convince me not to even bother with volume three,.stars. Closer tostars, but Im feeling spiteful,
Holy shit, this started off
with a strong, albeit with heavy hand holding, first issue, Then the second issues comes around and is noticeably weaker, And its all downhill from there,
Sure, the art is very pretty but the storytelling and writing leave much to be desired, The writing alone was confusing at times and was just conveyed badly overall, The story shows a family with low morals doing low morals things, MC grew to hiss but never matured past that teen with a tragic backstory, Instead of growing up, he once again chooses the selfish, fuck you path and chases a childs dream, taking everyone with him,
Throw in characters I dont care for, a phrase the ship has ears so redundant that I want to gouge myself so I dont have to read it again, a cliched, hellhathnofury scorned woman, and a plot that is slowed down and stretched thin so it wouldnt have to give answers
At this point I dont need to read more.
But I will because I believe in second chances, Which is something Richter obviously doesnt believe in, Like, what more does she want! Just call it even and get over yourself
Individual reviews:
sitelink, sitelink, sitelink, sitelink, sitelink Beautiful, beautiful art that is dark and muddy enough that it actively obscures the story.
That's pretty much the core problem of We Only Find Them When They're Dead, It was unfortunately enough to distance me from what otherwise looked like a good story,
I mean, maybe the premise is a little cliched, Giant aliens "gods" found dead in space and carved up for resources, It's shocking, it's body horror, and it's a little on the nose,
But it's kind of neat too, along with the idea of searching for a live god because "We Only Find Them When They're Dead", as the label says.
But there's just not enough worldbuilding, and what there is is shorthand "evil fascist corps!", and there's too much decompression, and there's that muddy art.
Basically, I'd love to love this, but as it's produced, it's just OK, Small butcherspacecraft carve up the corpses of dead gods floating in space, But then one of these small butcherspacecrafts decides to “go rogue” and see a live god, Which is against the rules for some reason so a space cop chases after them,
This was awful, I mean what! People carving up god corpses for meat could there be anything more banal as a premise! For food, Do the people of the future not have cows or chickens anymore Theyve mastered warp speed but havent figured out how to make any meat substitutes and/or farm cattle Or is there something to the god meat a magical property it imbues to the consumer Dont know because, oh yeah, Al Ewing is a shitty writer.
Nothing is explained so everything fails to make sense, I always thought gods were mostly ethereal beings rather than corporeal, How are these corpses “gods” is it because theyre big Does size mean youre a god Why are they all hot anime girls in armour does that make them gods Why is it against the law to see a live god what happens if you do besides attract the attention of a space cop
And thats the book: nothing characters arbitrarily chasing each other through space for unclear reasons, saying weirdly antiquated ship sayings why do they still say stuff like “eight bells” in theth century are they hipster douchebag spacebutchers!, and occasionally stumbling across a giant hot anime girl in armour.
This comic is garbage!
Al Ewing Only Writes Forgettable Bad SciFi Comics, Book One: Dont Bother is underwritten, poorly conceived, uninteresting crap.
The art us glorious. The story a big mess, The world building is so confusing, The time jumps and parallel stories are too jumbled to resemble a full story, I'd read the firstissues and decided to jump on board for a tpb, . was dissapointed I didn't finish this one, The art was nice, but a bit over the top, The color is cool, but I feel like I'm in a lazer tag arena after a few pages,
Ewing sets up a lot of mysteries that I will have to leave as mysteries, I just never found that thing to grip on to, the reason to give a care,
Did I give up too soon Let me know if I should give it another try, I was incredibly disappointed in this one, especially with my high expectations given Ewings terrific run on Immortal Hulk, I was hoping to get some weird Space Opera stuff along the lines of sitelinkOuter Darkness, Vol,: Each Other's Throats, but this doesnt compare, Its basically that scene from Guardians of the Galaxy when they go to Knowhere, which is the decapitated moonsized head of a dead Celestial that various aliens are mining for whoknowswhatpurpose.
Or how they use all the stuff from dead kaiju in Pacific Rim,
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Except thats not what the story is about, Its about a smuggler squaring off against his former sisterinlaw who is a space cop, And that story is pretty thin and ridiculously decompressed, Normally all of that would be contained in one or perhaps two issues, but here its stretched interminably over five issues,
The art is the worst part, De Meo can clearly draw but cant convey a story,of the book is done in closeups and most of the rest is impressionistic, so you pretty much cant tell whats going on, Only two characters are distinctive enough to distinguish between them, and the oversaturated colors combined with photoshop blurring with a general darkness makes it nearly impossible to tell what the hell is going on.
Maybe its just me, but perhaps you can tell me what Im looking at here:
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Oh well, live and learn.
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