Review: God Killers #2

Every village, town and city in the world has its array of monsters and mythological creatures, many of whom that have sprung from thousands of years of folk traditions. And while dragons may easily be the most recognizable: appearing in both western and eastern folk systems, Asia has several other horrific monsters. Monsters prowling about may be one thing but when they team up with Violent Extremist Organizations, the DOD has no choice but to deploy a special unit called the God Killers to neutralize the threat.

The God Killers are a Special Missions Unit organic to Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), that perform various clandestine and highly classified missions around the world when it involves religious objects of power and magic and mythological creatures used to wage war.

In the current issues of God Killers #2, have been able to track down and engage, the Malaysian version of the Mananggalan. The Mananggalan s are terrifying figures from Southeast Asian legends that feast on children and pregnant women. According to folklore, at night Mananggalan heads detach from their bodies, floating around with all their guts dangling below. Want to become a Mananggalan? First, you need to make a bargain with some sort of dark, all-powerful creature (like the devil). You hold up your end of the bargain and the demon will give you magic powers. But fail to live up to the deal and you’ll be cursed to become a Mananggalan.

Maan House, leans a bit heavy into exposition with the Arab-American Atheist Fighting ISIS, as a walking contradiction, but it does eventually pay off as most of the story is narrated from his point of view. The inter-fighting amongst the team has already become played out, and is an unnecessary stop pause, that doesn“t help push the story along.

Thomas Mauer“s art does a great job of sticking close to lore during the day they may appear as normal, woman. So, you might think, “Hey, this normal lady is totally normal everything is okay”“. But that would be a huge mistake.

Final Verdict: Bottom Line Upfront, issue #2 did a lot to quell my fears that the title would be unable to execute such an ambitious vision. The problem is that the balance in between myths, religion, beliefs systems and governmental intervention is so delicate that any wrenches in this clock’s cog mechanism might send the story“s wire awry.

SCORE: 3 stars out of 5

God Killers #2 will have 2 covers: Cover A was drawn by Jeremy Haun with Nick Filardi; Cover B incentive was drawn by Mirko Colak.

Written by: Mark Sable
Art by: Maan House
Colored by: Hernan Cabrera
Lettered by: Thomas Mauer
Editor: Mike Marts
Published by: Aftershock Comics
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