Feeding Time: ODY-C, Issue Four

ODY-C #4	IMAGE COMICS
WRITER: MATT FRACTION	ARTIST: CHRISTIAN WARD
FLATTER: DEE CUNNIFFE	LETTERER: CHRIS ELIOPOULOS

Of all the stories from The Odyssey, its opening tale of Odysseus tricking and escaping from the Cyclops may be the single most famous. It’s a classic story of a clever hero proving himself more intelligent and more powerful than an angry, savage villain. But its level of notoriety means that ODY-C would have to shake things up a bit to create any major surprises, and while writer Matt Fraction has certainly changed up more than just the gender identities of the people involved, it’s Christian Ward’s art that packs the biggest punch.

This issue primarily focuses on Odyssia’s successful attempt to get her remaining crew out of the hands of the Cyclops. But while Odyssia is the book’s main character, we see a bit more focus on her crew-women Pem and Tiphu, whose personalities are a bit more vibrant. Pem is one of the lesser girls, never made for such horrors that she’ll now face while trying to get home, and she spends the issue terrified, barely making it out alive. Tiphu is quite tougher, and thus a bit less relatable, but she’s still a dominating force in the issue, constantly criticizing Pem’s weakness. When Odyssia was previously the most vibrant character in the book’s main storyline, welcoming other characters into prominence is a good move, and one that’ll likely help the series when the crew’s numbers inevitably begin to whittle down.

All that said, there’s a definite distance between the reader and Odyssia’s story. Part of this is probably the unique format the book is written in, completely done in narration. That in itself isn’t a bad thing. It gives the book a feeling unlike any other, and it emphasizes that Odyssia’s story is a story, one rooted in myth both inside her world and outside in ours. It also emphasizes the roles the gods play in this story- above everything, reading the story just as we are, and given special privilege of speech bubbles. But the balance between Odyssia and the gods can come off as a flimsy one. It’s much easier to bond with the gods than our wily hero, if only because the gods seem to have a greater intimacy with the reader simply because of the way ODY-C is presented. The gods aren’t the heroes of this story- they’re the antagonists, so far, and this issue spends only three pages on them. But the lack of narration between us and them, and the fact that their status as watchers gives the reader a certain kinship with them, means that their emotions can easily come off as more powerful than even Odyssia’s. We may have not seen much of Zeus and Poseidon this week, but Zeus’ outburst at her fellow god certainly packs a surprising punch despite the shortness of the scene.

All that said, many of the issue’s flaws are saved by Christian Ward, who is an artist fit perfectly for drawing an epic. He’s not only great at showing emotions, such as Zeus’ combined pain and fury above, but also broad landscapes and intense battles. When the ODY-C’s crew attempts to escape the Cyclops, their attempt is a massive undertaking; they’re trapped down in massive pits, surrounded by bits of corpses. The severity of the situation is described best by a double page spread in which Ward pulls out from one of Odyssia’s women, placing the panels atop a scene of the Cyclops eating; on the left we see the woman alive and fighting, but as we go over to the other side of the page, we find she’s been killed as savagely as her fallen sisters. It’s horrifying, harsh and brutal, and Ward doesn’t skip over any bit of it.

In that way, a reader can be thankful that there’s a beauty to Ward’s madness. Cascades of blood, guts, vomit and entrails are all at once bizarrely gorgeous and grotesque in this story, where blood spirals out around a corpse in large swaths and the skeletons Odyssia’s crew use as ladders look beautifully mapped and refined. There’s a strange beauty in the gore that is sure to follow Odyssia on her journey, and it’ll be a lot of fun to see how Ward brings it to life as the book goes forward into new territory.

EXTRA NOTES: 

• I love the design of the Nymphets at the end of the issue.
• I wanted to throw this out to you readers before I made any decision: I’m thinking of taking ODY-C off of regular coverage after #5, which ends Volume One, and try instead to cover it every volume instead of every issue. Good/bad idea?