REVIEW: 'Godkiller: Tomorrow's Ashes' #1 by Matteo Pizzolo and Anna Muckcracker

This newest series provides a fresh jumping-on point for new readers while continuing the saga for Godkiller's devoted fans.

GODKILLER: TOMORROW'S ASHES #1

Writer: Matteo Pizzolo

Artist: Anna Muckcracker

Letters: Jim Campbell

Publisher: Black Mask Studios

Release Date: July 7, 2021

Cover Price: $3.99

IT'S BACK! From Matteo Pizzolo (CALEXIT) and Anna Wieszczyk, the comic that Zac Thompson said "pushed me further than I've ever been pushed" returns to ratchet up the chaos and roar through the comic market, spitting punk rock fury, thundering into your eyeballs and running roughshod across your brains with its often mindbending, sometimes horrifying, always clever & devious tale of sci-fi magic, apocalyptic sex, and subversive mindbombs.

Score:

★★★★☆ (4/5)

Being new to Black Mask's 'Godkiller' universe, the recap at the beginning of the new 'Godkiller: Tomorrow's Ashes' #1 was essential to know the players and circumstances going into the issue. What writer Matteo Pizzolo has proposed is a mature-rated cyber-punk sci-fi drama that is imaginative, audacious, uninhibited, and hardcore. It's this weird potent mix of 'Blade Runner,' 'Heavy Metal,' and 'Akira.'

The recap is roughly this, teenage orphan Tommy continues his quest to find a new heart for his dying sister, but he’s been captured by The Republic. Anti-heroine Halfpipe wants to rescue him, but she’ll need help from mysterious relic hunter Soledad. He's been purposedly infected with metarachnoid larva by the dreaded crimelord Beezal that will eat him alive unless he returns with an artifact called the Nibiru Box. 'Tomorrow's Ashes' picks up with Halfpipe and Soledad trying to bargain with Beezal. 

What transpires from there is seemingly familiar as they negotiate between insults but is ultimately shocking, brutal, and totally mesmerizing. Pizzolo injects a little humor in the banter between Halfpipe and Soledad which lightens the mood in a tense situation. The rest of the issue follows Tommy's detention which explains what the Republic wants to do with him. 

The issue gets its style, mood, and attitude from Anna Muckcracker's incredibly angular character designs and rich deep color palette. The characterizations are reminiscent of the avant-garde sci-fi animated short 'Aeon Flux.' The colors are bolder though, backgrounds are minimal but atmospheric, and the nudity is unabashedly on display but nothing sexy about it. It's moody and sort of surreal at times creating a sci-fi dystopia that seems more nightmare than dreamlike. 

'Godkiller: Tomorrow's Ashes' #1 is a continuation of a unique apocalyptic sci-fi world where anything goes. Pizzolo and Muckcracker aren't bound by conventional rules we're used to so we get a bizarre trip through their imaginations that's both shocking and riveting. This is definitely for adults but it ain't for everybody. If 'Saga' toiled in the underbelly of a dystopian society full of grime and subjective morality you'd find 'Godkiller.' 

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