Review—’American Gods: The Moment of the Storm’ # 5— Hidden Indians

It′s not easy for Shadow, staying dead.

American Gods: The Moment of The Storm # 5, Writer: Neil Gaiman, P. Craig Russell Artist: Scott Hampton Colorist: Jennifer T. Lange, Scott Hampton, Cover Artist: Glenn Fabry

I am amazed at how this team has decided to set the pace for this. Not only do we get to savor every bit of unexpectedness, but, also, we get to savor the wait. And I′m not kidding; look at Easter waiting on one side of the battlefield, for instance.

It′s hard to talk about this without SPOLIERS, so here they come:

First, Shadow has chosen nothing itself: the most restful place he could possibly find. And yet, someone is going there to collect him, showing him the “hidden Indians” mentioned somewhere in the novel and previous books. The concept behind some amusing kid′s pictures was this: first, you just saw the jungle, and, slowly, you would realize that there where tons of hidden figures among the lines, camouflaged, as it were. The team promises you they′re going somewhere with this, but it will have to wait for the next issue.

Meanwhile, the gods are ready to strike. In fact, they will start fighting ASAP.

And in this single page lies (for me) the beauty of this series. I cannot wait to get them in a proper TPB. When Neil′s words need beauty, the team provides it, sometimes playing with painted sceneries that stem from realistic quality to hallucinatory; other times, like in this page, they let his words do the job. That shows a tremendous amount of respect because, after all, how can you possibly draw an idea?

Neil wrote a 300,000 worded novel to explain to us what he thought about gods and America, about weird and lonely roadside attractions, and about the enormity of this strange country. He also wanted to write about why multitudes of diverse immigrants came here and what they brought with them in their heads: ideas, beliefs, snatches of their home countries… everything brewed here, in this magnificent land.

American Gods: The Moment of The Storm # 5 is on sale August 21st, 2019.

Genre: Action/Adventure, Crime, Horror
Publication Date: August 21, 2019
FC, 32 pages; Ongoing
Price: $3.99
UPC: 7 61568 00458 8 00511

Featured image by Scott Hampton, all images belong to Dark Horse Comics