The Believer and The Omens

The Believer #1
Larry Morgan
EMP Comics
24 pages
US Size
Black and white
$4.00

The escape of thirteen of the world’s most notorious super powered villains,

The disappearance of a beloved priest,

The appearance of a mysterious new hero draped in the symbols of faith,

The world stands on edge waiting for the reemergence of the vile Midnight Man, greatest of all rogues. As one man single-handedly rounds up the escaped foes, the heroes of the world gather with one question. “Who is the BELIEVER?”

 

 

Larry Morgan is the creator/writer and artist on this comic.  It’s reasonable story-wise and the art is okay -Morgan seems to be enjoying himself as we follow The Believer going about his good works and trying to track down escaped villains.  There is a bit of a twist at the end which might prove interesting.


My problem is that this features a lot of Christian symbology.  Now, I’m a complete atheist but I’ll review comics featuring characters from any mythology so that is how I treat this.  I’m hoping, and Morgan should make it clear, that this is all it is an not an attempt to simply introduce Christian doctrine to comics…though I’d also argue that he has every right to!

See how issue 2 turns out.


The Omens #1
Larry Morgan (W)   Shane Moore (A)
US Size
Black & White
24pp$4.00

According to the EMP web page:

.    Fourteen years ago, one fourth of all federal research grants were going to fund transgenics. We were on the cusp of breaching the species barrier.*

.    In 2008 D.A.R.P.A. (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) was invested in a $3 billion dollar project to create “Metabolically Dominant Soldiers.” **

.    Despite the usual media portrayals, human cloning and the creation of human-animal hybrids is not illegal in the US.***

.    The next steps in human evolution will be made by man not by God!

 

These statements are not from Comic Books or the latest sci-fi, they are from the news. This is the real world and it is stranger than any comic book you have ever read. These topics and many more are the basis for Electromagnetic Press’ New Comic the OMENS.

 

The Omens is a sci-fi adventure that follows Maggie Goodwin, a young woman who discovers she is a posthuman a genetically engineered new breed, “whose basic capacities so radically exceed those of present humans as to be no longer unambiguously human by our current standards.” Maggie’s strange new abilities cause an abrupt end of her normal suburban life when she is forced to go on the run from both the United States Government, strange extraterrestrial entities and the nefarious Dr O.

 

*Tom Horn (2010) Raiders News Network, The Ahriman Gate

** The Brookings Institution (2008) How to Be All That You Can Be: A Look at the Pentagon’s Five Step Plan

*** The Daily Telegraph (2003) US agency to check Raelian clone claims

 

 

 

The art here is a bit cruder than with The Believer, however, this is Moore’s first comic so I will mention there are some nice touches and it’ll be interesting to see how he develops.

 

 

You’ll note from the quote that there seems to be a certain agenda to Morgan’s writing.  In this book a student verbally tears into a teacher because evolution is ridiculous and full of errors whereas Creationism answers it all.  Hmm…in one comic, okay.  Two comics and I think someone needs to stand up and say “These are comics by Christians so will involve our beliefs” which would be fair enough.

 

 

Let’s see how this all develops.

 

 

Two interesting comics but maybe Morgan can explain all this Christian stuff.  Again, if he wants to publish a comic with his own beliefs in, fair enough -but at least say so.

 

 

You can check out EMP site here:

http://web.mac.com/shane_moore/iWeb/EMP/Home/Home.html