There are comics that rise above the average industry publication. Stories that strike the reader with their ability to touch on burning, politically incorrect, uncomfortable and yet tremendously current and necessary topics for reflection. This is the case of Seven Sons written Robert Windom And Kelvin Mao and designed by the talented Jae Lee and published in Italy by Welding press.
And his name came
In Las Vegas, in an alternative future not far from us, a new and powerful church is the spokesperson of a prophecy: seven children will be born from seven virgin women, and this event will bring peace and prosperity to the world.
Today one of these seven children turns twenty-one and the time has come for him to embark on the journey and take on the role that the cult has imposed on him: he must become the savior of the world. Soon, however, the boy will discover that the truth is much more complex than that and that unspeakable horrors are hidden behind the facade of the church. Peace has come but at a very high price. The original prophecy may not lead humanity to the promised joy, but to Judgment Day…
Second coming
It takes a while to get into the plot of the comic, but once you do, the trip is worth the cost of the ticket. A distorted, sick society based on a huge lie reveals itself before us. An enormous mass manipulation built on purpose to keep humanity at peace.
The second coming of the son of God was supposed to be a harbinger of a new era of prosperity, a Utopia on earth, but which turned into a dystopia. Gradually we enter the ganglia, the mechanisms of manipulation. We touch the boundaries of power and reflect on the strength of great narratives in manipulating the helpless masses. There is also talk of terrorism and political violence as a form of resistance to a suffocating power. A power that flattens everything into an uncompromising conformism, which erases diversity in the name of a fictitious greater good. Everything is told in a masterly way by Robert Windom and Kelvin Mao, who through a diachronic narrative narrate a story full of dialogues but also very flowing.
All the pieces of the puzzle converge slowly and slowly and the more you get into it, the more you want to know. When the mask of power begins to show cracks, a dark and disturbing light begins to filter through. What are the limits of scientific research? How far can one go, how far does the end justify the means? Jae Lee creates almost surrealist, distorted drawings, each figure moves along the thin edge of the macabre. The Jesi themselves have something disturbing, androgynous figures that are difficult to define. Great use is made of lights and shadows, of dull colours. A gray patina seems to pervade the tables, almost as if the light did not filter through. The grill seems to break into a thousand fragments of broken glass. It is a particular style, almost sick, which lends itself well to the style of narration. The work does not have a positive protagonist, nor a happy ending.
It carries forward a raw and uncompromising narrative, sharp and without filters. There is no room for a Manichean narrative about black and white, good and evil; everything is more nuanced and straight lines cannot be drawn.
The work, it must be said, only sins in an excessively open ending. If it had ended two pages earlier, it would have been perfect; it leaves room for a potential sequel, but perhaps it ruins at least part of an already perfect work. In any case promoted!
