4 out of 5

This book encapsulates why writer John Arcudi is a freakin’ boss.

John slips beneath the radar of big name comic authors because he tends not to write the pitch.  Whereas a lot of these *cough flash in the pan cough* guys grab attention with their elevator premises, Arcudi’s books tend to have pretty generic sounding summaries: in A god Somewhere, a man suddenly gains superpowers.  Oh, okay.  And the powers corrupt him?  Yeah, read that before.

And I wouldn’t disagree with you.  But John’s skills are akin to pausing at the burning bush: he’s able to look at those been-there storylines and ask questions that haven’t been asked; to find and pull on threads that have yet to be explored.  These are often very human concepts, which is how he came to be the premiere architect of BPRD; a world of demons and world-destroying monsters and John was able to ground it all in character.  (While, mind you, still delivering the comic action or adventure or humor any given title might need.)

This is how A god Somewhere can grapple with race, family, friendship, religion, and morality without it seeming trite amidst the widescreen devastation perpetrated by our hero corrupted – reminiscent of Miracleman’s shock-value travesties (my opinion on that book aside…) – nor disrupting the overall story progress concerning how the world deals with a nigh-indestructible foe.

Arcudi is a boss.

Also achieving boss-like standards’ on this book: Peter Snejbjerg.  On other titles, Pete’s figures have occasionally looked stiff to me, but working with colorist Bjarne Hansen to drape god Somewhere in ominous or alternately spotlighting shadow work gives the title the proper combinations of majesty and misery to make its powerful moments a weird mix of unnerving and awesome that John’s human take on this tale requires.  Scenes that would play off as simple Superman pastiches, or that would seem indulgent in another’s hands are here perfectly immersive.

Letterer Wes Abbott’s clean font is a good, non-distracting match, with well spaced and placed bubbles to not disrupt the flow.  However, there were a couple of spots where he flipped bubble tails behind foreground elements that seemed unnecessary and did distract.

This is a lot of praise for four stars, eh?  Well, yeah: while the heavy lifting of this story is fantastic, the line between when our lead goes from rescuing folks with his powers to blowing them up is crossed rather hurriedly.  In a way, it makes sense, but it’s the one beat of the story that felt like it could’ve used one or two more pages to build on or smooth out.  Not having it as such makes the destruction that follows take a bit longer to accept as the norm, i.e. you’re half-suspecting some comicy twist until realizing that, no, this is just how the story is going.  But it’s a small side step in a book that otherwise tackles a familiar setup and manages to make us feel something new – and powerful – about it.