Review: ‘Ordinary Gods’ #5 Twists The Plot

The main story is by writers Joe Clark and Kyle Higgins. While writer Jana Tropper provides the text for the back-up material. Tropper does a good job at keeping the back-up interesting, and slightly enhancing one character’s background. As for the main story, Clark and Higgins create some moments with the villains that characterize at least two of them as slimy. There are also three smart plot twists in this issue that should intrigue regular and oncoming readers. Although the dialogue for the main story is realistic the back-up material is more so. Yet, that is more cause of the format and presentation than anything.

The other interior elements are by artist Felipe Watanabe, colorist Frank William, and letterer Clayton Cowles. Watanabe does a great job when it comes to keeping the characters looking consistent. Also with the help of William’s coloring the use of shadows and suggestions of light look mostly natural. William also does a pretty great job both when it comes to coloring the settings and varying the skin pigmentations. Unfortunately one of the characters that first appears in this issue looks a little too suggestive due to the first position we find them in. This wouldn’t be a problem, except the apparent age of their face does not match their body or characterization.

Cowles is good at using the positioning of the anchors and word balloons to assist the pacing of that Watanabe’s art displays. Yet, Cowles could do better at relating delays between actions and dialogue using the positioning of the anchors.

Production artist Ryan Brewer is still doing good work. Though it is getting harder to view Brewer as an essential creative for this series without the introduction of obvious new elements. While the logo by logo designer Rich Bloom is still good on each cover it is possible that it could see improvement. Mainly in a way where it works better when it is white. Editor/designer Michael Busuttil does okay with the general design of the book. However, there is still the problem of not giving proper credit to all the cover artists on the credits page.

The main cover by Watanabe and William feels very fresh. It has a great sense and use of depth via the contrasts in heights. While the colors on the window images suggest ethereal energy and a possible time. Artist Doaly provides the visuals for the 1:25 incentive variant cover. Doaly features a relatively basic, yet original feeling, design. While there is a decent color balance between the two parts of the image the bottom does not quite work with the additional text. Finally artist Yoshi Yoshitani does an overall great job with the design and coloring on the Line Breakers connecting variant, but it arguably fails without the previous 4 parts

Ordinary Gods #5 (2021) is out now from Image.