Gabriel #1 is a comic written by C. K. Riley with art by Branko Jovanovic. In a world where all religions and myths are real one god is trying to rule them all. This is a supernatural comic that takes place in ancient times with plenty of conflict and drama. The leading character in this story is Gabriel; he is an angel in the employ of Lord El and he longs to be human. There are a number of other well known characters here, mainly from Judaism and Canaanite mythology. The story begins with Gabriel taking in a nice moment with a random family before being summoned for a conversation by Yahweh. From here we get a number of revelations and a glimpse of what is to come. There are selfish goals and past animosity drudged up here. The violence here is both bloody and gory with blades being the main cause of damage. The pacing is slower than average because the mostly conversational dialogue can get poetic and you might get confused and have to reread. The tone is serious and things are more intense than calm. There are no word-heavy pages here. This is a debut issue for a series that takes many different religions and myths and intertwines them in such a way that conflict is inevitable.

            The art here is in black-and-white and is very detailed with well done shading. The scenery looks lush and alive and the clouds fluffy and rampant. The locations tend to start off grand with nice views of the landscape before giving us close up views. While things start off on earth itself in a Middle Eastern environment they will eventually move to the skies. The panel backgrounds almost always show part of the scene which adds something extra to the story. The expression level here is slightly below average as these are mostly higher beings so they have an apathetic look most of the time. The range of emotion is pretty much anger whether righteous or not. The faces are very detailed with strong features. There is some slight face/build sameness as it is hard to tell which character you’re looking at in some scenes. The violence here is gory and bloody with more than a few stabbings. The action scenes are occasionally large spectacles and you will probably get lost in the action a couple of times due to similar looking characters.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like supernatural stories dealing with multiple religions and myths and featuring violence then this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Violence, gore.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Vanquished king. So quick to bend the knee.”

 

Purchase Link: https://www.theshatteredstar.com/the-epic-of-gabriel

 

***** I received this review copy for free. *****

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 30

Violent Pages: 6, for 20% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 3

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 4

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 3

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 1

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”