Second Coming - Russell, Pace, Kirk, Troy

 

This is another comic comp that I picked up on a whim at Henderson's wonderful oddity'n'comic shop, Cemetery Pulp. Of course, I'm always a bit curious about the mildly blasphemous - or, at least, a different take on the Biblical stories that I was brought up with, whether it's a comic like this, or a movie like The Last Temptation of Christ or a novel like Barabbas. In this case, God (the Father) is a bit disappointed in his son, Jesus, and after seeing the super-hero Sunstar in action on Earth, he sends Jesus down to live with Sunstar and his girlfriend in the hopes of Jesus becoming a bit more macho, like the old testament God. Of course, this doesn't work out quite like it was planned.

Sunstar is shown to be extremely flawed and human (although he is an alien) - he is even in group therapy - and Jesus, who has been banned from watching Earth since he left by his Dad, is pretty bewildered about the state of the world. Jesus encounters many who claim to speak for Him, but they get it all wrong and the Biblical stories are written by people who never met Jesus (quite true, of course). Satan is involved, of course, and there are new apostles, who he hopes will be more true to his word, white supremacist "Christians", and new friends and enemies. Sunstar has family issues, super villains, and even Satan after him, but does his best to make things work with his girlfriend (eventually to become his wife) and the world around him.

I truly enjoyed the concept and the writing, as well as the artwork, and am looking forward to see where this will go.