Godstorm

For centuries, Zeus has kept his distance from his children, believing that it was the best thing for them.  However, as the years went by he has begun to re-think this course of action as the sins of his children came back to haunt him.  Now, with the return of one of his greatest failures, Zeus vows to make amends for his past mistakes, but will it be enough to quell the wrath of a spurned offspring?  Read Godstorm, the new hit series from writer Pat Shand and Zenescope.  You’re sure to get a charge out of it!

Ok, so this one is gonna be a doozy.  Five issues all in one review, pretty sure I can handle it.  So, let’s get down to it and see what’s what.  Zeus is not the most faithful man in history, so as you can probably guess, he’s fathered quite a few children over the centuries.  Most had gone on to become great heroes of their time. A few however, became a blight upon the world.  Now, Zeus begins to wonder about his choice to leave his children before they ever knew him.  Enter Julian, once thought to be just a common street thug, now finds out that he’s a son of Zeus.  However, when Venus shows up to form an alliance with Julian, he starts to suspect that there’s much more to him other than his godly powers.  This series has kinda done a bit of a mash-up between the Greek and Roman gods.  It seemed a little odd to me at first, but in the end I guess you get the best of both worlds.  With the writing talents of Pat Shand behind these books, you just know it’s going to be good.

Issue zero serves as a great interlude into the tragic tale of Zeus’ greatest failure.  I guess that’s to be expected with a zero issue, but this one has some great moments of introspection for Zeus, that shows a mortal side to the king of the gods.  Here we see him lamenting his decision to distance himself from all of his children, whether god-like or mortal.  Which brings us to issue one, where we find Julian, who seems to be nothing more than an everyday thug.  All his life he’s been pushed around and told what to do.  Pat setup a really nice dynamic between Julian and Tony.  You can really see how conflicted Julian is with each order Tony gives him.  Almost like he knows he’s meant for something more than what he is now.  I liked seeing him wrestle with his thoughts, just trying to figure himself out and where he went wrong to end up where he is, although he gets a nice surprise at the end.

Issue two has Julian finally starting to grow a bit of a backbone.  Now that he has this new found power, why should he have to take orders from Tony?  I like how Julian finally calls out Tony in this issue, and right in front of all of Tony’s associates no less.  Julian is done taking crap from Tony and lets out years of pent up frustration, over many different things.  His lack of a father figure, or father for that matter, combined with Tony’s domineering friendship, made for quite the powder keg. 

 The third issue sees Julian being corrupted by the now revealed Venus.  Even in this issue you can see Julian struggling with himself.  Herein lies Zeus’ greatest concern.  Had he been there for Julian from the start, would he have turned out as bad as he has?  Yes, a lot of Zeus’ offspring had done rather well for themselves without Zeus’ guidance, but it’s the ones that don’t turn out so well that he regrets the most.  So much pain and suffering could have been prevented if only he had nurtured and taught his children the honorable way of things.  Julian has fallen victim to this lack of attention and it really shows throughout his rampage.  Great issue that really captures the conflict.

With the fourth and final issue of the series, a lot has been revealed at this point.   Pat has done a stellar job overall, turning Julian from a lowly enforcer for a crime-lord to a god.  Julian just seemed like such a nobody character begin with, not really talking or anything when we first see him, just another muscle in the background.  However, as the series went on Pat was able to develop a character that really held his own throughout.  When Zeus was finally revealed as his father, the resentment and sense of abandonment just flooded out in violent rage and brought forth his true self.  I just really enjoyed seeing Zeus finally trying to own up to his past mistakes and to make amends with all of the children he left behind.  Pat Shand really knows what he’s doing with these books and I had no qualms with anything that I read. 

              

 There’s so much to like about this series, that I highly recommend checking these books out.  With a name like Godstorm, you just know this series will be action packed and a jolting good time.  Greek and Roman mythology collide with an ending that will shock you.  So yes, bolt out to the store and  grab these issues before you incur the wrath of Zeus, it’s worth it!  For more info on where to find these books, visit the Zenescope website, or the Zenescope Facebook page.

Geek-o-Rama received a copy of these books for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions are those of the individual reviewer though we suspect that Pat may have the ear of the gods for his talents...