Quick, Bill – One Accord

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One Accord

Whooo boy. This probably isn’t going to be pretty, so I should at least highlight the things that I liked about this book. $.75 is a great price for a comic of this size and it never hurts to mention on the cover that you also take trades. I also thought he did a pretty nice job on the coloring and the art was mostly pretty good. Here’s the thing though: this is a religious comic, and I think religions as a whole are pretty damned silly. If you’re of a generally Christian persuasion, maybe you could find something in here to love, I don’t know. But I’m not (although I was raised that way, so I mostly know the Bible enough to talk about it), which means that I have to review this purely on its merits as a comic, and by that measure this comic is mostly annoying. Oh, one more good thing: at least it’s not a hateful religious comic. Well, in ways it is, but nothing bad is said about gay people, which seems to be a prerequisite for most religious work these days. The story starts off with our hero reading the Bible. That’s the first page, at the end of which he absorbs the book into his chest. Then Neal has a vision (not a dream, as he’s standing up the whole time) about a young woman who is in trouble at some kind of anti-religion rally. I thought they were at church at first, but then why would the pastor be doubting the existence of god? Anyway, Neal prays for a bit and god shows him his special armor: Aquaman’s costume, Captain America’s original shield (but intangible), a sword and a really dorky bike helmet. OK, those weren’t the names he gave for those things, but it’s quite an assemblage when it’s all done. So then the bad people decide that they’re going to eat the harlot (who somehow got tied up with a ball gag put in her mouth), but our hero chases a bunch of them off. Even with this comic I’m not going to spoil the ending, but I already mentioned that this is an overtly religious comic, so what do you think happens at the end? The last few pages are “answers” to a few difficult questions that people might have with references to Bible verses. So what’s my problem here overall? The woman-as-a-helpless-bystander bit has been old with me for years. What exactly did she do wrong anyway? Is a halter top a sign of demonic possession? And is it really OK for our hero to kill a good number of the people who were chasing them? Aren’t all people capable of redemption? Granted, he mostly just hit them with his thrown invisible shield, but he was hitting them all in the head. And those joke hymns at the bottoms of most of the pages… oy. Listen, this comic was just not intended for godless heathens like myself, so in all honesty I can’t review it for its intended audience. The art is nice enough (although some of the faces get a little wonky) and he really did do a great job with the coloring. I just no longer have any patience for or tolerance towards being preached at.