Gabriel #4 is a comic written by C. K. Riley with art by Federico Peters and Branko Jovanovic. Gabriel suffers in a barren land as a number of Goddesses converge on his location. This is a supernatural drama comic with strong religious themes and constant interactions between beings from different belief systems along with plenty of introspection and philosophical thoughts/discussions. Some of the characters here are: ex-archangel Gabriel, The Morrigan, Artemis, Zeus, and Zhinu. Some pantheons have a stronger presence here than others; primarily the Greek and Taoist ones. This story picks up where the last issue ended with Gabriel tied to the lone tree in a desolate land. As he ruminates on his journey to date the perspective then shifts to Artemis as she speaks to the raven Muninn, who had been accompanying Gabriel. This takes place in different locations that are seemingly on earth but could very well be elsewhere. The violence here is lightly bloody and gruesome with a bit of gore. This moves at a slower-than-average pace due to the subject matter and sequences which can be confusing. This has a mystical, esoteric, and deep tone. Most of the intensity here is due to drama though there are some violent moments. The dialogue is mainly conversational with spiritual and moral concepts being the primary topic along with some narration from Gabriel. There are at least a couple word-heavy pages and multiple thick text bubbles and blocks. This is an intriguing issue that introduces new characters, changes objectives, and showcases unique battles of both a physical and mental kind.

            The art here is drawn in a softly detailed, realistic, watercolor-like style with pointed lighting and heavy use of shading/shadows. Most of the colors are dark in tone with red being the most prominent tone. Besides the lone tree and a couple shots of a forest there isn’t much physical scenery but the sky is very noteworthy with constant changes. The location is constantly changing as there are many characters in different places from forests to palaces. Backgrounds do usually show the actual surroundings; these tend to be very cloudy and multicolored but sometimes there are physical objects. The expression level here is low as most of the characters don’t visibly react to what goes on. We will see some angry, pained, and happy emotions. The faces have a high amount of detail so when they do show different expressions it is usually very clear. There are also some large mythical creatures. Mystical powers are either bright, cloudy, or a combination of both. The physical weapons of choice are swords and bows with a decent amount of blood, a couple gruesome attacks, and some organ-revealing gore. The action scenes come in bursts with a high panel count with a potentially confusing flow due to the cloudiness and shadows.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like supernatural drama stories that star prominent characters from different religions and that tackles tough questions and has deep thoughts with some violence then this is for you.

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

R. Violence, blood, gruesomeness, gore.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“What does that mean? My will is my own.”

 

Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CQRHNY18

 

***** 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): 36

Violent Pages: 5, for 14% 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 – 2

“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.”