Review—American Gods: The Moment of The Storm #8

Shadow comes back to Lakeside, one last time.

American Gods: The Moment of The Storm #8, Writer: Neil Gaiman, P. Craig Russell Artist: Scott Hampton Colorist: Jennifer T. Lange, Scott Hampton, Cover Artist: Glenn Fabry

Now that the worst is over, Shadow has the right to finish and tie up all loose ends.

SPOILERS, from now on:

It′s very hard to explain a short issue, an almost final issue, without talking about what happened before and what will happen next. It′s like discussing the new Jedi movie. You HAVE to go back.

When Shadow was Mike Ainsel, in the last story arc: ′My Ainsel′, he was hiding away in Lakeside. A beautiful town, a place of safety. However, it had only one snag: a child disappeared every winter.

After Shadow came back from the dead, he had only one memory, one little inspiration: the certainty that whatever Lakeside hid, it was “inside the trunk”.

And that is where Shadow went, right after the storm: to the swaying trunk of a car, tucked on top of the frozen lake, a place everyone saw passing by, a place where, every year, a clunker will be swallowed by the ice: a place of sacrifice.

Once Shadows discovers it, Hinzelmann will tell him about the past, about why he did what he did, every year, for thousands of them…and the monster will be finally slayed.

This is a brilliant thing Gaiman did over and over, to tuck away, inside the main story, little stories, little gods, little cruel things humans did to one another, in the name of luck, and belief, and everything we make up as holy.

And, now, after American Gods: The Moment of the Storm #8, there′s only a debt to settle now…