It’s time for the gods to get involved.
Creative Staff:
Story: Mark Evanier
Art: Sergio Aragones
What They Say:
The gods did not bless Groo with brains, only with the ability to battle. Now, they themselves are in conflict over the spirit and future of mankind . . . and it is Groo who becomes the pawn (unwitting, of course) in their war. If the future of humanity depends on the wanderer—we’re all in a lot of trouble.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Last year was a very good year for me in being able to reconnect with the character of Groo. I had read a lot of it back in the 80’s in my heyday of comic buying but never made it back after that lengthy series at Epic ended. So last year’s twelve issue series that reconnected me with the wide-ranging cast of characters and quirks was a lot of fun and it introduce me to some new ones as well. With the success of that series, a few more projects are in the works this year and that includes this four-issue new series Fray of the Gods. There’s just something about Groo that even with the familiarity behind it that I can’t look away from it. It’s just so much fun and Sergio Aragones really deserves so much praise and admiration for his skills as we see here.
With this series we’re going to see things expand a bit with what Groo is getting involved in, though no real fault of his own. The structure is certainly the same at the start here as we get Groo doing his wandering as he looks for both food and fray to engage in as that’s what makes his day. With Rufferto at his side, who again gets a single page strip at the end to delight, he’s always hopeful that they’ll achieve both goals and frustrated when people don’t seem to understand his master’s greatness. The world is fully aware of Groo, however, so there are few that will get drawn into his trap willingly. We see that at the start here where the village of Remba has set up a constant Groo-watch that reports in to the main village every thirty minutes. With no sightings 48 times a day, well, this is the happiest place in the area as they get to celebrate that fact pretty regularly.
With Remba being set up for later, the book focuses on Groo’s arrival in the nearby village of Bosk where he’s finding only women working, the same thing as another village nearby as well. The men of Bosk are fighting men from another village where a power play has been in effect with two brothers, one of which has won and has installed himself as the new god king with plans to just be a god. The destruction of idols and worship of the old gods has everything on edge and you can easily see the frustrations that exist here as everyone is keeping their head low in order to keep said head on their body. Groo walks directly into this and a larger fight that’s brewing as the gods above are going to tolerate this for only so long before getting involved themselves. There’s a lot of backstory here about the brothers and the quest for power and while it is interesting, it also slows things down a lot in a way that you don’t expect from a Groo book. So when it does shift to the gods level after all of it, it just feels like a weird turn of events, though one that has me hopeful for a new level of silliness.
In Summary:
Groo: Fray of the Gods may not be captivating me with the story just yet but it delivers handily once again with the artwork. Evanier delivers something that will likely work well in the long run with how it unfolds but this one just felt even more dense than usual for a Groo book with the dialogue and setup, partially because it’s not a one-off storyline and a lot is being introduced here. That said, Sergio Aragones really just makes this a fascinating book to take in with the amount of detail, character design, and all the little background quirks and nods that enrich it as a whole. I could re-read the book a dozen time and still miss a few dozen neat things he puts into it as it’s so packed full of goodness. No disrespect to Evanier in the slightest, but this could be a wordless series and just be engaging to read with what it does because of how well Aragones crafts his story. A solid start overall that has me hopeful for some big things ahead in the next few installments of this longer running storyline than normal.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: July 20th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
