A God Somewhere
Writer: John Arcudi
Artist: Peter Snejbjerg [gesundheit]
Published: Wildstorm, 2010
A common superhero origin story is that
of the ordinary guy/gal given extraordinary abilities and their
struggle with how to use these new-found powers. It can be summed up
by the words of Spider-Man's wise, late uncle, Ben: “with great
power, comes great responsibility.”
And sometimes there are those who
choose to shirk that great responsibility, and abuse that great
power. Thus, supervillains are born. But, like most things, it is not
always so black and white; Magneto, a “villain”, wishes only to
protect his people from what he considers a harsh and unjust world. A
God Somewhere takes a look at that vast, gray expanse between “right”
and “wrong”.
Meet the brothers Forster, Eric and
Hugh. As teens, they valiantly rescue Sam, a new student at their
high school, from getting beaten up. They become life-long friends.
That friendship is slightly tested when Hugh marries a girl that Sam
is also in love with. One night, an explosion of unknown origin rips
though Eric's apartment building, but he is miraculously unharmed. He
is also now in the possession of the ability to fly, as well as
superhuman strength and telekinesis.
At first, Eric uses his powers to help
others and is deemed a hero. He is instantly the focus of a huge
media storm but starts to become more withdrawn and less concerned
with the affairs of mortal men. His relationship with his brother
grows strained and he eventually snaps, and begins slaughtering
people just because he can. Soon enough, the full might of the U.S.
military is brought down upon him in a battle royale worthy of Pay-Per-View.
There are some great moments, visually
and in writing, like the line at the beginning, “eventually, maybe,
you learn the cruelest lesson in life... you're just another
character in somebody else's story”, or near the end, when Eric is walking
casually through a scene of horrific carnage, bored look on his face as
he rips the innards from yet another soldier with the wave of his
hand. The cover itself is a send-up of the famous “footprints”
poster [which I own!], and it makes for a striking image.
It is pretty of vague in terms of the
source of Eric's power, but I didn't really mind too much. Eric is a
fairly religious guy, so he naturally believes it's God's will, but
the plot doesn't get mired down in the potentially huge and/or boring
religious discussion. The story is more about what he does with said
power than how he got it.
Overall it is good, but not perfect:
The transition that Eric makes from “good super-Samaritan” to
“mad god of destruction” is a little too abrupt. He goes from one
touchy conversation with his brother to yelling at the President of
the United States to crippling his brother and raping his brother's
wife to psychotic killing spree? Seems a tad unbelievable to me. A
recent film, Chronicle, takes on similar subject matter, and does a
better job of showing a gradual descent [ascent?] into power-tripping
that is more realistic.
Also, I'm not exactly clear what the
message the author was trying to get across was, if any. The closest
I can guess is that we, as limited beings, cannot hope to fathom the
mental state of a supreme being, because we cannot conceive of what
it is like to be limitless.
Anyway, this limited being is going to
fire up a bag of popcorn and stream some Game of Thrones. What a good
show!
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