Customer Reviews

Goddess

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I'm surprised at the mostly negative reviews for this book. Garth Ennis likes to write over-the-top stories, and this book is no different. It's not as epic as Preacher, it's more lighthearted like The Rifle Brigade. Our protagonist Rosie develops strange and erratic powers, which attract the attention of CIA agent Harry Hooks, whose violent overreaction in turn attracts the attention of Police Constable George Dixon. Caught up in running from the CIA are Rosie's friends; the irresponsible take-life-as-it-comes-until-someone-pisses-you-off-then-kick-them-in-the-nuts Mud, Mud's ex-girlfriend Sam, and the whiny and suicidal Jeff. And who could forget the homicidal, mentally retarded twins, the Butcher Bruvvers? The story takes Rosie and her firends and enemies on a literal world tour, leaving chaos and blood along the way.

The real draw here (pun intended) is the art by Phil Winslade. Pencilling, inking, and coloring, it took Phil over three years to illistrate this book, but boy was it worth it. The level of detail is amazing. Take a second to look at the little things, like the engine of Mud's motorcycle, or the undercarriage of the fighter jets. The range of things that Mr. Ennis gave Mr. Winslade to draw is excruciating. Tigers, sharks, whales, polar bears, high powered telescopes, arctic military bases, fighter jets crashing into buildings, ships dropped onto apartment buildings, skyscrapers teleported to the north pole, guns falling apart in people's hands, not to mention exploding heads, people pulverized by machine gun fire, corpses in space, and the queen of England. Where it would have been easy (not to mention sane) to take shortcuts, Winslade never backs down from a challenge, and boy did Ennis give him a lot of them. But there's no generic interiors, no cookey-cutter background characters, no objects falling into silhouette. Go look at that cover picture above. Do you see the little details under Mud's tongue? I literally thought "Wow!" as I stared at every single page.

I admit, On the surface this book really just seems like goofy violence; excessive blood for excessive blood's sake. But really stop and look, and I guarantee you'll appreciate this book a whole lot more.

In one of the strangest over-reactions of the time, DC/Vertigo postponed the publication of Goddess in the weeks after the September 11th attacks. The book contains some strong images of eco-terrorism, but the violence is SO over-the-top that it's hard to imagine anyone being offended....The story itself is simple- Young Irish lass Rosie Nolan begins to display strange, seemingly limitless powers. Finding herself pursued by a crazed C.I.A operative, she goes on the lam with 3 friends. Horrific violence ensues.

Ennis' script will offer no surprises to longtime fans- We've seen this kinda thing before in Dicks, Hitman, and Preacher before. The art by Phil Winslade is great; You can actually see the progression of his talent as the book nears it's conclusion. The book picks up after a slow start, and the end is truly original. The book also has a new introduction by Winslade, and a gallery of his sketches and unpublished art. Overall, not a bad package, and it's hard not to fall for the loveable Rosie....

It took me a while to appreciate Goddess. The first time I read it, I was ultimately bored. None of the characters were likeable, and the bad guys were almost indistinguishable from the good guys at times. The pacing of the comic book is awkward at times as it'll range from drama to action in less than half a page.

The story begins as Rosie Nolan discovers her powers & seperates Scotland into it's own private island by accident. The story then jumps to several of the other key characters in the story to give us a bit of character development for them. We meet Jeff who's more of a loser, but means well. We also meet the infamous Mudhawk, a eco-terrorist who's more than willing to shed human blood to save an animal's life. We also later meet the villains of the piece, although the only ones that stand out are the incredibly brutal "Butcher Bruvvers", homicidal maniacs with the minds of children. From there Rosie has to travel with her friends in order to stay ahead of people who want her dead or to study her as well as try to discover who or what she exactly is.

Like other reviewers said, none of the characters are that overly likeable & at times the themes seem to be non-existent in favor of gratuitious violence. At times it seems like there's no real difference between the "heroes" and the villains of the piece. Both are more than willing to murder, albeit Rosie does it more to survive. (Mudhawk on the other hand? He seems to do it more for thrills.) In the end I was left with the image that Rosie could become just as harmful as the people who messed up the Earth if she's not careful, which may have been Ennis's whole lesson.


I would have to hesitate on recommending this unless someone's read it first, unless you can get a good deal on it. There's a lot of people who won't like this comic book, even after a few readings to get past all of the over the top gore & violence. Still, there's good reading in the book if you're willing to look for it.

Let this be clear: I love "Preacher". Ennis's work on "Hellblazer" was magnificent. Even "War in Heaven" and "Pilgrim" was far above average.

So I was pretty excited about this early work of his.
Sadly, I was deeply disappointed. Oh yes, there are many glimpses of the nihilistic Ennis-brand of satire. And plenty of bloodshed. But all the fun goes out of the book, partly due to Winslade's boring, over-detailed artwork, but mostly due to the heavy-handed, shallow political correctness that poisons the story.

Police are bad, must die, horribly. CIA bad, must die, horribly. Whalers bad, must die, horribly. Military bad, must die, horribly. Smokers bad... well, the villain is a smoker, nobody else is. The all-too predictable anti-authority attitude gets old in a few pages. And the heroes are frankly not very likable at all. The charming well-meaning villain, who gladly kills people to protect animals comes off as a stupid git, with fists instead of brains. And Rosie herself, the Goddess of the title, starts out as a confused superpowered being, but as she gains control, she only wants to use her powers to cram her own ideals down the throat of humanity.

It's surprising, as well, as Ennis in "Preacher" raged against political correctness at every opportunity. Perhaps he woke up after Goddess and actually realised that know-it-all political correctness is as much a false authority as know-it-all cynical politicians.

I dearly wish I hadn't read this depressing book at all.