God Country by Donny Cates and Geoff Shaw
I picked this graphic novel up for two reasons:
It was on sale.
It’s got a big sword on the cover.
I should have known this wouldn’t be for me, an ex-Texan when the cover also had a “Highway 1 Texas” sign. There is no Highway 1 in Texas. The best thing about this book, for me, was the west Texas accents.
A family is being pulled apart caring for the patriarch, Emmett, who has Alzheimer’s. When Emmett becomes the chosen wielder of Valofax, the sword that is all other swords, he is cured - as long as he holds the sword. Valofax’s choice pulls the family into a galactic war with its previous owner whose power and prestige are crumbling.
There were definitely some interesting parallels between a lower-class west Texas family and a dying god monarchy and the ebb and flow of success throughout generations, but honestly - at the core of this book, I should have known why Valofax chose Emmett and we never learned that.
It felt like the lesson from this book was, to know when to give up. Because the “god” Emmett was fighting was holding his whole world together with his power and Emmett’s son, Roy, is holding on to his dad and his family home and keeping his family together. Eventually, someone’s gotta lose something and they do.
We also learned that the God of War is nice and that the God of Death is a dick. We see Emmett risk it all for his mind and then his family. We see his family deal with the effects of his choices, but this comic really lacked depth, motivation, and drive from all the characters. -Ford
