REVIEW: ‘The Goddamned, Vol. 1: Before the Flood’ is the Mark of The Damned

Jason Aaron is on the roll right now. One of the reasons he is nominated for this year’s Eisner’s Awards as Best Writer, I believe, is the quality of storytelling and character development he delivers in his creations and mainstream comics. Two of his creator-owned works, The Southern Bastards and The Goddamned, are critically acclaimed for the overall plot, engaging characters, gritty and dark approaches to subjects and themes, and the writer’s boldness to tackle controversial topics few dare to confront with.

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It is the latter, THE GODDAMNED, VOL. 1: BEFORE THE FLOOD; that is more thought-provoking, if not polarizing, than among Aaron’s current works. Unlike his current Thor series that is basically a gender swapping of a masculine identity; unlike his Star Wars run that is primarily a fill-in-gaps to the existing Star Wars mythology; unlike his Southern Bastards that is grounded on Southern American realism and football, The Goddamned targets the Genesis, particularly the First Murderer and the famous boat builder. The first born of the first parents is often portrayed negatively, while the proto-ship cruise architect is in the bright side. But Jason subverts this to the extreme to the extent of redefining and realigning the chronology of the first chapter of the Bible itself. Instead of the bloodthirsty persona, the Goddamned himself is a bit sympathetic, if not an anti-hero. He is just searching a fellow powerful enough to finish him off, but to no avail; while the other famous biblical fellow is what the religious fundamentalists and fanatics are made of: preachy, hypocritical, douche, borderline evil. There are minor characters around, but the two mentioned are the forces to be reckoned with before the first inevitable cataclysm. Moreover, Jason is an iconoclast himself for his fertile imaginations run virtually wild for there are horrendous monsters roaming around the end times, mutated being or freaks exist side-by-side with the remaining humans around, and other beings conceivable. If your faith is already secured and rock solid, you cannot help but acknowledge Aaron’s bravery of hypnotizing a feasible possibility of these iconic figures ever meet, which obviously the sacred texts never ever says so.

Scalped collaborator and co-creator R.M. Guéra is also responsible and should be commended for the current success Aaron is having because the illustrator’s world-building is impeccably bleak, disturbing, horrendous, disgusting, and nothing to be optimistic about. One may think the time takes place here is in the future, but we are talking about the Genesis here. The artist’s overall projection is justifiable due to the signifying plot of the end times in the most reverse way possible. There are religious imagery here that can be considered sacrilegious, if not outright blasphemous, to those hypersensitive and myopic minded types and religious fanatics around. But this is a comic book series and The Goddamned is definitely for the strong-willed and open-minded types of readers. Guera delivers in his re-imagining of the world before the fluvial Armageddon and the characters involve, especially the two primary characters.

The Goddamned, Vol. 1: Before the Flood is not for the faint of heart, even so to those who are unprepared for the test of faith. Also, I find the language a bit modernistic, neither anachronistic nor closer to the times possible. Regardless, this book is an excellent revisionist view if ever one wants to know the fate of the first son and the hypothetical assumption that he indeed meets the ark builder in the most twisted and sacrilegious way possible. Prepare and test your present faith with THE GODDAMNED!

The Goddamned, Vol. 1: Before the Flood will be available at your nearest local comic book store on September 7, 2016.