Story: Mohsen Ashraf / Art: Willi Roberts / Letters & Design: Lydon White / Edits: Katharyn Blair
pantheon – n. the gods of the people. especially: the officially recognized gods
Minor spoilers.
The back matter of Ashraf’s latest comic series PANTHEON likens it to “Game of Thrones meets American Gods“, a seemingly apt description. Although, I have minimal exposure to Game of Thrones, and I feel like the more apt touch stone is the roleplaying game Scion or perhaps to target an older audience who are/were fans of Percy Jackson.
All of this to say, an epic story revolving the offspring of the divine coming together in a vast interwoven narrative where the fate of the entire world is at stake is not exactly a new concept, which is not to say that PANTHEON does not distinguish itself from its peers, but rather to acknowledge that exceedingly human response to be fascinated and enamored with mythology, as Ashraf clearly is.
This was evidenced during the first title of his I reviewed, Syphon, which similarly riffed on a familiar premise in order to engage with a lot of different cerebral concepts and that trend continues here. This particular subsection of speculative fiction asks a lot of questions about the nature and power of belief, and Ashraf and editor Blair are very cognizant that the myths are presented accurately and accessibly. Several of the chapters/issues (depending on how you engage with this comic) are preluded with actual mythological texts with annotations explaining their origins and real-world context. The collected volume itself also includes a comprehensive index of the gods referenced and primers about different key elements of the different mythologies involved. This includes a brief summation of how Roman religion co-opted Greek mythology, which itself in incidentally interested to the main narrative thrust of the book.
PANTHEON‘s story at its bare bones sounds super familiar: the world is ending. It is up to the protagonists to discover their true nature and come together to fight off evil with ancient artifacts of untold power. However, Ashraf and Roberts make some fun decisions with the central cast. Vidar who very easily could have fallen into familiar traps of the MCU Thor or the cast of the God of War. Instead, it projects a very different energy, while still keeping all of the “never knew my father” angst that is a staple of the genre. Aurora gets to fill the role of reincarnation, and my favorite character, Asha gets to be the lone singularly divine entity as an Agent of Truth & Righteousness, with a strong association with fire. Roberts takes some cues from Wonder Woman for Asha’s design, but she easily steals scenes she’s in and is one of the more memorable additions to the cast, perhaps heavily aided by the fact that she originates from Mesopotamian myth which doesn’t get as much screen time compared to Greek, Egyptian, and Norse mythology.
Rounding out the principle cast is the Assassin who holds the distinction of opening and closing the volume. The Assassin’s introduction was a lot more interesting than the subsequent interactions, but that’s just a quirk of having to spend time with our protagonists, and I’m sure the characterization in the future will be fleshed out.
It is clearly well-researched and documented, with care put into making it feel “authentic” which is to say true to the nature of the myths it uses as inspiration. The narrative pacing definitely ebbs and flows, and the hope is now that this first arc of getting the team in the same place is done, the team can build on their strong foundation to explore the truly novel spaces they have worked towards.
And finally, I would like to highlight White’s magnificent lettering. PANTHEON at times can be a bit verbose, but the lettering makes it super easy to parse and providing each character with a distinctive color for their text makes does double duty in making conversations super easy to follow while also given a sense of grandeur to the character themselves. The thing about lettering is that you often only notice when it’s distracting, so I feel it important to acknowledge when it is done superbly.
All in all, this first volume of PANTHEON is solid. It was a fun read with a lot of interesting choices that set the foundation for the rest of the series, and I’m intrigued to see where it goes and how it further distinguishes itself from the crowded market. But the entire creative team clearly loves mythology, and as someone who also loves mythology, I can appreciate the care they took to craft this tale in the time-tested tradition of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth.
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