Almighty #2: Humanity is its Own Undoing

This series has been an interesting dive into faith and belief, exploring these themes with an apocalyptic setting. After the first issue, I got the impression that the writer and artist, Edward Laroche, was trying to say that this world is headed towards apocalypse since many people stopped believing in some form of higher power. This is an idea that left a very sour taste in my mouth, but considering that Laroche had written and drawn an incredibly layered, nuanced story, The Warning, only a few years ago, I decided to pick up issue #2 to see if there was anything buried within here to keep me aboard. I am glad I did.

Almighty #2 picks up with Fale and Del continuing to evade the Golden State motorcycle gang, when they stop in Loncast City. Here we learn a bit more about Fale, as the duo stay the night in a motel, enjoy a plentiful meal, and go to a nightclub. Ultimately the Golden State motorcycle gang finds and confronts our protagonists, but are gunned down.

This issue’s focus on Fale definitely brought out a different side of this title that was not present in issue #1. Fale is deep and nuanced, with a mysterious background that is destined to be further explored later in this mini series. We learn that she is part of the LGBTQ+ community, in a yet verbally undefined way, and that she has a questionable but firm sense of morality. These two aspects alone help change the narrative away from a pro-faith based theme into something more complex.  The idea that that belief separates humanity from animals is brought up again here, but this time is given a new context since the characters are now delved into in a new way. 

My interpretation of this could be way off, but subtextually it sounds like Laroche is making an argument that the faith based believers represent a subset of humanity that uses their faith to hide the base nature behind their being. This ultimately leads to people lying to themselves in order to feel like they are going to be saved in a way that the rest of the world will not. In actuality, Humans are just animals with a higher level of intelligence, some of which believe that they are going to be saved by a power higher than themselves. Going back to the first issue, this theme changes my interpretation of some of the scenes, such as when the truck driver gets murdered by the motorcycle gang. I originally saw this as a blatant attempt to villainize those who do not hold any sort of faith based belief structure, but now I see it as a criticism of those who strictly rely on faith to guide their lives. After they arrive in Loncast City, Del proclaims that belief may separate people from animals, but when faced with people’s true nature, it becomes obvious that they are not worth believing in. All of this meaning may change throughout the next couple of issues, but for now, Laroche is painting a clear link between faith, hypocrisy, and our animalistic nature. 

Just like in The Warning, Laroche’s art here perfectly captures the tone and grit of the setting and world that these characters live in. He is not afraid to depict gruesome death and gore, and includes brief scenes of nudity, which solidifies this title’s adult themes and nuanced narrative. This art also doesn’t attempt to glorify any of the content, maintaining its gritty nature from beginning to end.