• Written by: Jonathan Hickman
• Art by: Valerio Schiti
• Colors by: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo, Marte Gracia
• Letters by: VC’s Travis Lanham
• Cover art by: Mateus Manhanini (cover A)
• Cover price: $4.99
• Release date: June 12, 2024

G.O.D.S. #8 concludes the experimental miniseries by sending Wyn through Time and Space to visit key moments in his life, ending at the pivotal moment where he’s given a second chance to change everything.

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Is G.O.D.S. #8 Good?

Jonathan Hickman’s vanity project ends oddly enough by showing you glimpses of “everything” while technically telling you nothing. At the very least, you’ll come away from G.O.D.S. #8 believing Hickman has a vivid imagination for world-building. Whether or not the world-building is enough of a substitute for a story is up to you.

When last we left the avatars of the Natural Order Of Things and the Powers That Be in G.O.D.S. #7, Dimitri embarked on a personal mission to use the “listening” devices he attached around the city to triangulate a weak point in our reality. His goal? Find out where his cosmonaut parents went when their rocket disappeared years ago. The plan worked but at great personal cost. Dimitri was never seen again.

In G.O.D.S. #8, we begin with Wyn, Mia, Doctor Strange, and Aiko witnessing a surrendering ceremony at the end of a war between cosmic beings 100 years from now. The heroes discuss the state of their relationships, and everyone seems concerned for Wyn, who recently returned from an 80-year absence for unspecified reasons. Privately, Wyn checks on Aiko, and during their chat, Aiko confesses she would have chosen their marriage over her role as an avatar of the Natural Order Of Things.

The next day, Wyn and Aiko use Dimitri’s PDA to find where Dimitri was lost in some alternate reality. The expedition was successful, but Wyn found Dimitri and his father died long ago. The trip allowed Wyn to claim the Oblivion device from Dimitri’s body, which he confiscated from an assassin several issues back.

Later (still 100 years later), Wyn visits an A.I.M. science research facility with a particle collider. Using Dimitri’s PDA and the Oblivion device, Wyn jumps through the revised collider’s portal to revisit his past when he first agreed to serve the Powers That Be. He meets the Mother Of Magic (again) to reminisce, but chaos principles behind the collider’s portal are unpredictable, and Wyn is soon leaping through spots in his own life.

Eventually, Wyn lands in a spot he can’t remember – the In-Betweeners stronghold on a secret, Second Earth. There, Wyn learns he was captured, dissected, and tortured for 80 years as an act of spite for foiling the In-Betweener’s plans in the present. Wyn has no memory of the torture.

After several more Time jumps, Wyn ends his journey at the point where his life could have changed forever – the day he married Aiko. As a gift for years of service, the Powers That Be give Wyn a chance to choose to continue in her service from the point of the wedding on forward or live a quiet, ordinary life with Aiko, knowing that someone else will have to save the countless lives Wyn did but maybe not as successfully.

“Wait! That’s it??? That’s the end??? What was the In-Betweener trying to Do? How did Wyn stop him? What was the point of setting up a world and a character but not doing anything with it?” you might ask. Those are all good questions, but I’m sorry to say there are no answers. In effect, this miniseries could best be described as Hickman’s sandbox to play and explore. The reader’s presence is incidental, so it truly is a vanity project.

What’s great about G.O.D.S. #8? Hats off to Jonathan Hickman for proving his prowess as one of Marvel’s best world builders. Wyn’s montage-like skips through Time plant multiple seeds that could each serve as the foundation for an entire story.

What’s not so great about G.O.D.S. #8? Showing readers small bits of “everything” while saying nothing falls well short of satisfying.

For example, Hickman established a reality-ending threat involving the In-Betweener’s plot to create thousands of sleeper-cell terrorists. We never see the totality of the In-Betweener’s plan, when it was executed, or how far it got. We find out later that the In-Betweener’s plan was thwarted and that Wyn and Doctor Strange pay a painful price for their victory. Will that story ever be told? What was the point of starting a story but never showing anything other than the aftermath years into the future?

At best, this is a miniseries composed of teases and hints. Is that a terrible way to write a comic? Yes and no. Yes, it’s terrible because you’re not telling an actual story, which is an egregious misuse of readers’ money. No, it’s not terrible because you have good ideas here, but maybe they should have been reserved for backups or individual zero issues on FCBD.

In effect, Marvel and Hickman are guilty of false advertising. “Buy this really cool Jonathan Hickman miniseries focused on original characters and the cosmic side of Marvel. **[fine print] It’s just a collection of ideas and notions from Hickman’s pitch notebook and not a complete story.”

About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.

Follow @ComicalOpinions on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter

Final Thoughts

G.O.D.S. #8 brings the pseudo miniseries to a close by sending Wyn on a trip down memory lane to visit different points in his life, including the fallout from his battle with the In-Betweener (which we never see). Hickman proves he’s still the most creative world-builder on Marvel’s team, but readers looking for an actual story will only find unsatisfying snippets of scenes and ideas that could be developed into something more in the future.

6/10

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