PANTHEON: The Elemental Artifact Volume 1 Review: Ancient Gods, New Blood & One Hell of a Mythic Collision

WEPAAAA! Pantheon: The Elemental Artifact Volume 1 comes through swinging for the fences, mixing Norse, Mesopotamian and Greco-Roman mythology inside one shared world without turning the whole thing into a dusty history lecture. Mohsen Ashraf is playing with a BIG toy box here, but the real hook is not simply seeing gods, monsters and ancient artifacts collide. It is watching a younger generation inherit divine baggage they never asked for and figure out what the hell they are supposed to do with it.

The volume collects issues #1-5 and follows three central threads: Vidar, a reluctant Odinson pulled into a world he barely understands; Asha, a Mesopotamian fire goddess who already knows the rules and has every reason to question them; and Aurora, whose connection to the Greco-Roman pantheon forces her to rethink everything she thought she knew about herself. Ashraf gives each storyline its own personality before slowly tightening the screws and bringing the cast together. That structure takes patience, but it pays off because the eventual team dynamic feels earned instead of assembled by editorial memo.

The writing works best when the mythology becomes personal. Fathers fail their children, divine houses carry grudges longer than civilizations, and belief itself becomes part of the power structure. Ashraf clearly did the homework, but he does not treat the source material like museum glass. The gods are allowed to be arrogant, wounded, funny, petty and dangerous. A few stretches get dialogue-heavy, especially when the book is juggling history, family politics and cosmic rules at the same time, but the character voices keep most of that exposition from becoming a chore.

Willi Roberts is doing serious work on the visual side. His character acting keeps long conversations alive, while the monsters, gods and combat scenes have enough scale to sell the mythic stakes. The art is not chasing hyper-rendered realism, and that works in its favor because the book needs to move between modern human spaces and larger-than-life realms without feeling like two different comics got stapled together. Some faces and poses can stiffen up from panel to panel, but the overall visual storytelling stays clear and confident.

The colors might be the MVP. Each mythological corner of the story has its own visual temperature. Norse sequences lean into cold blues and stormy purples, the Mesopotamian material burns with reds, golds and volcanic orange, while Aurora’s Greco-Roman thread often carries softer purples, creams and warmer light. Once those worlds begin smashing into one another, the palette becomes part of the storytelling. You can feel where you are before a caption tells you.

Sequencing is strong throughout the 174-page story. Action lands with clean impact, quieter scenes get room to breathe, and the chapter breaks give each protagonist enough runway before the larger plot pulls them together. The one trade-off is that this first volume is doing a mountain of setup. Readers looking for a completely self-contained mythic war may feel like the book stops just as the larger machine really gets moving. I did not mind that because the final act delivers a proper convergence and a strong hook forward, but this is absolutely the opening movement of something bigger.

Lyndon White’s lettering and design deserve props too. Dialogue remains readable even on some very talky pages, sound effects sit naturally inside the action, and the mythology text pages plus extensive backmatter make the world feel researched without forcing every bit of information into character speech. The glossary and mythological references are especially useful because they let curious readers dig deeper after the story instead of slowing down the action every five minutes.

Pantheon could have easily become a mythology mash-up that survives on recognizable names. Instead, Ashraf and Roberts give it an identity built around inheritance, belief, history and the uncomfortable truth that old stories never really stay old. It has ambition, personality and enough visual fire to make the dense world-building worth the climb. Tighten a little of the exposition and keep pushing the chemistry between Vidar, Asha and Aurora, and this series has room to become something special.

Ancient gods, young blood, family drama, monsters, betrayal and enough mythology to make your old history teacher start throwing elbows. Pantheon: The Elemental Artifact Volume 1 earns the hype and leaves the door wide open for an even bigger second round.

CRUSADERS SCORE:
3.5/5

Writer: Mohsen Ashraf
Artist/Colorist: Willi Roberts
Lettering & Design: Lyndon White
Editor: Katharyn Blair
Publisher: Pantheon Myths