The New Gods #3 tells a story that feels almost like legend. It succeeds wholeheartedly in deepening the lore of the world these powerful characters inhabit. Writer Ram V, artists Riccardo Federici and Evan Cagle, colorist Francesco Segala, and letterer Tom Napolitano all work together to add weight to this story of gods.
The issue starts with a war raging on Apokolips. It then immediately cuts to Metron and a more mysterious character named The Chronicler. The Chronicler has summoned Metron, but Metron doesn’t know for what. Chronicler explains the story of how this new, young god on Earth came to be. While he does that, Mister Miracle and Big Barda set out to find this new god and protect them. They meet up with Oberon, Mister Miracle’s friend, and leave their child with him while they set out on their mission.
WRITING
Ram V once again delivers on the new entry of this team’s godly epic. Character work takes a step back here in order for V to do a bit of housekeeping. He explains the origins of this new god on Earth, and why they’re so young. The story is told by The Chronicler to Metron, and right there you already have an incredibly interesting dynamic. A mysterious character giving new information to the man who should know everything is a really fun situation V sets up. The character that should know everything and strives to paired with the character that does makes for some great dialogue and V uses that to his advantage.
The story the Chronicler tells feels like legend. V writes it like it’s a new entry in a book of myth that will be read thousands of years from now, and that really works. Something really special about telling the story this way is how it deals with the things not even the gods could account for. At one point, Chronicler’s story takes an unexpected turn. He expected the child to be met with violence and confusion, but instead a human treated them with love and care, and a will to understand. Compassion was not accounted for in the tale of the gods, and that’s an exciting theme for V to explore moving forward through Mister Miracle and Barda especially on this quest of theirs to find the child.
ART
The start of the first two issues each featured a few prologue pages helmed by different artists. After those, Cagle would take the reins for the majority of the issue. That wasn’t the case this time around. Cagle did the beginning and a few interlude portions, but Federici took on half the workload this time around as well. Both do amazing work, and the work of each flows nicely into the work of the other. While Cagle covers the art in the present, Federici handles the art of the Chronicler’s story. Federici’s style really lends itself to recounting myths and fables. His art is dreamlike, like pages out of a storybook. He does this really special thing in a page with Chronicler and Metron where Chronicler’s face fills the panel that it’s in, but then breaks free of it as he just blends into the beautiful starry background. It helps in showing his control over stories, how he’s the storyteller and that everything serves him. Federici helps Chronicler’s story feel like history through these mostly static images of godlike characters and locations. It’s as much showing as it is telling, the reader sometimes even gaining more context through what they’re seeing rather than what they’re reading.
Cagle covers the present day portions of the issue, and it feels like he’s found a really great rhythm with Scott and Barda. He perfectly captures their endearment for one another through facial expressions and body language. He draws Scott wearing his mask in a really fun way. Certain facial features on it are prominent, but it’s really just an incredible expressive set of eyes and his mouth. There’s this one specific panel where Scott is standing on top of a car with his cape flowing with the wind. a rocket is shot at him with the smoke of it breaking through the panel, hitting the rocks behind him as he and his beautifully designed suit remain unscathed. There’s so much impressive detail to both him and Barda. It’s just consistent quality.
COLORS
This issue’s coloring really lends itself to both art styles present. Segala fully displays his range here. The colors present in Federici’s part of the book are mostly muted. There’s a prominent beige that fills the background like smoke, telling us that the background details of the story don’t matter. The main objects in the story are bright and prominent though. The bodies of gods as well as the cosmos itself are shining blue with stars. Green eyes pierce through the page, watching. The ship that escapes a planet with the child has a strong bright trail behind it. With Cagle, Segala’s chunk of the story is much more grounded. Not everything is blended to resemble myth, a lot of stuff is flat and much cleaner. We’re in reality now, and on Earth. Things need to seem real and tangible, and Segala really excels at that switch. It’s seamless.
LETTERS
The lettering in this issue is especially creative. Large, text-filled boxes are present when the Chronicler tells his story of the new god. They’re placed carefully around the beautiful art, and there are very little text bubbles. The bubbles help to immerse us in the tale, but the large boxes fill the page, they’re the real focus and are incredibly prominent. Napolitano also does this really fun thing with Scott. He can be sassy at times, and Napolitano really stretches out the letters on a few words to make him come off as a snarky schoolboy. The repeated letter alternates different sizes to make it read a certain way, and it’s just really fun and clever.
CONCLUSION
This issue was incredible. We were told a story hidden from the New Gods themselves in a masterful way, everyone involved should be found. It felt like myth being etched into the walls of a cave with the story in the present contrasting that, showing that we’re in this situation. We’re here, experiencing the aftermath of the fight of the gods. It’s unimaginable how much more powerful they’ll seem in the issues to come.
