G.O.D.S. #7: “‘Do you still believe in God?’ / Said the sorcerer to the cosmonaut”

One of the baseline terrors at cosmic storytelling’s core is the insignificance of human life. On the reverse, that also speaks to the human condition’s beauty, as meaning is derived from the fleeting nature of existence. Humans are tiny flecks in the grand scope of the universe’s uncaring nature, but they continue to struggle and form castles from the little grains. The axis of humanity then becomes an axis of tragedy and aspiration, reflecting on which philosophical principle guides it forward when faced with the unknown and unknowable. 

G.O.D.S. #7 – written by Jonathan Hickman with art by Valerio Schiti, colors by Marte Gracia, and letters by VC’s Travis Lanham – offers another strong, mostly self-contained story of Dimitri’s backstory and lives long quest. The seemingly young envoy of The-Natural-Order-of-Things is a child born to the Russian cosmonaut program, growing up in the Cosmodrome. One day, it is revealed that his parents were lost on a mission in orbit after hearing a strange, curdling sound that was relayed back to Earth. The scientists working on the program offer poor condolences to the young boy, ready to move on per the mission statement of the Russian state. In doing so, they offer Dimitri an unwitting challenge to understand the unknowable. 

That tense set-up leads into the modern day, as Dimitri makes his move by calling in a favor to Doctor Strange. Divulging Wyn’s plans surrounding The In-Betweener, the envoy manages to obtain knowledge from the Sorcerer Supreme, which opens the path towards an unknown point outside of space-time. Dimitri ventures into the mysterious portal created by tracking the signal, leading to a pocket of antispace with deadly creatures and a single survivor. Dimitri gets some answers but more are open, and he ventures back in, seemingly left to be unseen per Wyn’s final beat in the story. 

Tragedy continues to permeate throughout this reality-spanning adventure, the sense of longing and brokenness seems to be an anchor for the massive cosmic poles established. The-Powers-That-Be and The-Nature-Order-of-Things are treated as cold, indifferent forces that seek out the damaged people of the universe, speaking to the heart of fiction and compelling storytelling. Hickman’s backstory for Dimitri is the right flavor of devastating and oppositional, in a way that makes his willingness to cut a deal with Strange all the natural. There’s never a doubt that the envoy of Natural-Order is down to his last option, and turning to his polar opposite feels like the only possible choice to make. 

A large contributor to the organic feeling is Hickman’s layout of information, which goes from the flashback to a datapage, and then the rest of the story. The data page, which has been noticeably absent from this series, makes a clear attempt to establish a sense of order to the events of the universe. The primary axis present in the story is science and magic, joined by the notions of birth and death, and then good and evil. The shape created by these axes is a cube structure that constitutes the “totality” of the universe. What Dimitri seeks lies outside of that totality, and thus it has to be established before he can reach out to seek it.   

Just as Hickman designs that structure in his scripting, so too does Schiti and Garcia in the artwork. Starting with the opening flashback, the artists created a grayscale palette that only features an accent of red, indicating the gaping wound of Dimitri’s past. Garcia’s specific red hue oozes like the fresh viscera found near a raw wound, untreated and seemingly never-ending. Once the artwork reaches the data page, the red overtakes and serves as the accent to the main axis of science and magic. From there, the book returns to its usual style of rich, detailed artwork and enthralling coloring. 

Schiti’s artwork continues to elevate the emotion in this issue, playing the pain and grit infused into Dimitri for pure tension. The typically collected young man feels more human than ever in this story, and that boils down to the emotional range that Schiti cycles through. From moments of close-ups as a child with less jaded walls or the adult that lights up in the triumphs of locating the signal, Schiti’s linework reinforces the subtle shifts in the envoy’s emotions. 

Following in the same tradition is Schiti’s ability to upscale from that intensely personal to the expansively abstract. When Dimitri traverses into space outside of reality, it evokes the lone astronaut drifting in space, engulfed by the speck-of-dust nature embodied by humanity reaching for the stars. Schiti manages to convey not only the sense of scale but the lack of gravity in the situation, illustrating the sense of movement while gravity flees. There is crystal clarity in the figures and movement even as another body appears which adds possible confusion due to a similar suit. The anatomy that Schiti imbues into Dimitri makes it easy to follow him as he guides the body throughout the void space. 

The canvas of space is evoked thanks to Garcia’s coloring, which trades in majestic hues of blues, pinks, and purples. Those tones reflect the cool, distant, and ultimately unknowable qualities that speak to the nature of the universe (and whatever lies outside). Feelings like those evoked by the coloring are mirrored in the appearance of Doctor Strange, who trades in the bands of tones when casting magic. Garcia’s palettes indicate a roiling mystery that speaks to the nature of both magic and science, reinforcing the axis while indicating they lie closer than the avatar and envoys want to admit. Garcia’s colors make it possible to synthesize that understanding thanks to the beautiful tapestry of tones. 

When the book moves from the ethereal beauty back into reality, the sense of tragedy returns in Dimitri’s final exchange. Closure and drive go hand-in-hand within that scene, and Schiti’s artwork delivers a touching series of panels that flourish in the wider frames. The emotion spills out into a series of cinematic panels that captivate, infusing heartstring-pulling emotions into an issue built around the surface nature of science. Garcia’s colors elevate the moment thanks to a subtle shift from the overtly majestic hues back into the cooler blues of the established colorscape.