by Josh Powell, Editor-at-Large

Hickman, Schiti and Gracia continue their ambitious project of world building in parallel with the existing MU and thank goodness it is now the convention to include an action-thus-far blurb in the comic itself, because it has already become very, very involved.

Official Description:
THE-POWERS-THAT-BE and THE-NATURAL-ORDER-OF-THINGS are two of the forces that shape all of existence. Their mortal avatars and apprentices roam the Earth, working together in an ancient truce—an uneasy alliance of science and magic. WYN, avatar of The-Powers-That-Be, and AIKO, a Centivar of
The-Natural-Order-of-Things, were once married but now find themselves working at cross-purposes. The violent Proto-Mage CUBISK CORE was freed by the IN-BETWEENER but was subsequently subdued by a coalition of avatars and magic users. Wyn, his partner DIMITRI and DR. STRANGE traveled to the LIBRARY OF WORLDS to consult with Aiko and DR. SAINT-MAUR CERCLE about these troubling events. Aiko’s new protégé, college student and magic user MIA DiMARIA, took in her new surroundings at the Library as well. The group was interrupted by the arrival of a young woman named AMELIA ADDISON. Amelia is the latest in a line of CASSANDRAS, an oracle driven mad by her visions of coming disaster but cursed to be ignored. Amelia’s visions led her to the Library of Worlds, where she tried to prevent the apocalypse by assassinating an A.I.M. agent in possession of a mysterious and powerful artifact. But also in attendance was the universal abstract OBLIVION, in human form. After Amelia’s attack, Oblivion unleashed its own vast powers…

Hickman, Schiti and Gracia continue their ambitious project of G.O.D.S. world building in parallel with the existing Marvel Universe and thank goodness it is now the convention to include an action-thus-far blurb in the comic itself, because it has already become very, very involved.

The Babylon Event that kicked off the madness is now last year’s news, but it had the lingering effect that the science-y NOOT org chart now has a hell of a lot of strike-throughs on it and their HR department is having to go berserk trying to buff up the ranks.  This they attempted with the curious move of sending one of their few remaining agents to issue the Call To Adventure to a young woman named Mia who will eventually grow up to work for the other side.

The magic-y PTB however, still are represented only by allegedly dashing main character Wyn and his catamite Dimitri, who is actually a NOOT guy, as indicated by his tidy crystalline aesthetic, and by Dr. Strange, a de facto PTB member by virtue of being the principal Marvel magic guy, and by having a sort of flowing, piratical look to his costume like Wyn.

And no comic is anything these days without an Abstract Being to prevail over, so then there’s Oblivion, who looks like what ever he wants and sometimes affords a glimpse of his True Form (as something like an egg over easy from hell) as punishment whenever anything pisses him off, which is frequently.

Last issue had Dimitri and Mia meeting cute over weird drinks in an inter-dimensional bar, and ended with the precognitive Cassandra sacrificing her brother’s family to their tragic fate in order to secure a gun (this is America- there were surely less involved ways to get a strap) which she used to blow away an extra-evil AIM guy who had been manipulated into creating a new artifact of ultimate destruction by the In-Betweener.  However, this act of teleport-in-and-commit-wanton-violence somehow triggered the event she was presumably trying to stop, which naturally pleased Oblivion very much.

So if you’re following along, issue #3 ended with all already lost, but they presumably didn’t want to end the series yet, and indeed here we are with a full-length issue four, so how to get out of this?  Well, with the Sorcerer Supreme not-yet-quite-annihilated and backing up his rep with some snappy timestone-style shenanigans and rolling back the tape of reality frame by frame until Wyn can save us all by punching AIM guy in the jaw.

Cue the rage of Oblivion again who is naturally annoyed when de-annhilation events occur.  Will Wyn be able to curb his trademark lip?  What about when he notices the mark of his ex-wife who divorced him by way of shooting him in the head mere issues ago on the promising new magic user?  But put all that aside- looks like this latest guy (whose tragic backstory was related in the interstices between instants) climbed out of a Skinner box as well, just like Babylon guy.  Every time one of these opens up, somebody climbs out to present a cosmic-level pain in the ass for everyone.  Just how many of them are out there?  Steve and his new/old buddy Wyn intrepidly climb into one to find out.  See the splash on the last page for the shocking answer; even this universe’s foremost magic user and a man who communicates almost entirely by means of quips are dismayed.

Rating:
Check out G.O.D.S. #4 – as the parallel universe of craziness continues to take shape.  ComicsOnline gives G.O.D.S. #4 three out of five obscure psychological research devices repurposed into foreboding Portents Of Doom.

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