Malik and Paula. El and Jay. Choices will be made and fates sealed near the corpse of a god in BOOM Studios’ We Only Find Them When They’re Dead #5 by Al Ewing, Simone di Meo, Mariasara Miotti and AndWorld Design.
Chris Eddleman: Andrea, the first arc of We Only Find Them When They’re Dead is coming to its conclusion, as we tie our narrative bow, so to speak. We left Georges and Paula in a final showdown, while Jay and El are hesitating on their next move. I’m very excited to chat about the finale with you, as secrets are revealed and final choices are made. Let’s dive in?
Andrea Ayres: I am really ready, I have been waiting for this issue. Lots of good juicy bits here. I’ve got Google opened, so I’m ready and waiting with a bunch of ship-related sayings and wild speculation. Strap in.
What’s Past is Past
AA: So. Thierry and Paula were a thing? I guess more than a thing. It looks like they were going to get married. What’d you think about that bit of information? It certainly puts a different tinge on Paula’s vengeance. I knew there was more to Paula than we were getting, but it’s nice to have that confirmed, if for no other reason than I’m looking for any win in life right now. Literally. If I get coffee into my mouth in the morning I’m like, “LOOK at you. You are out here really doing it.” OK, I’ll stop talking. What were your thoughts?
CE: Oddly, I kind of thought that Thierry and Paula were an item. I honestly don’t know what made me think that, but it’s very interesting. It makes Paula look way less selfish in terms of her revenge … or way more? I suppose it could be either way. We learn that the Vihaan was a family affair, with Georges’ mom and uncle as workers. I think a small, unrelated critique of this past sequence is that Georges’ mother and uncle didn’t seem particularly older to me, and it was slightly jarring. I like that this past scene reveals kind of the hidden natures of Georges and Paula. Paula seemed caring and uncertain, slightly softer than she is today. However, we learn that Georges is far more cold and calculating than even initially appeared.
AA: I do generally like the intention here, but YO I just am feeling bummed about some of the pacing decisions or reveals. I don’t know if it’s a particularly fair critique, but I’ll lay it out all the same. Issue #1 really nicely laid out how the government worked, the interests it had and the cost on bodies and lives.
We got more interpersonal stuff in issue #2. Issues #3 and #4 feel like they could have been one issue. I reckon I just wanted more of a layering of how the extremes of capitalism lead them all here. Which I think we do get, I just feel like it’s all come out on the first few pages of issue #5 in a way that doesn’t make me feel like I’ve seen enough for the payoff to be worth it.
On Page 9 there’s the phrase “an act of God.” Which is an interesting little nibble considering the way this issue ends. I’d love to know what you thought about WHY Georges decided to lay behind? Is it the payoff you were looking for?
CE: It was odd to me in a few ways. What is Georges motivated by? Is it simply love of family? Is that why he initially switched with Thierry? Is that why he continues this fruitless quest of finding the gods? I didn’t love that this issue didn’t delve more into his mother and her thoughts on the gods, but that’s honestly fine. His motivations being selfish and destructive to those around him seemed like only part of him, but after this issue I like the reveal that it’s truly all he seems to be able to do.
Decisions, Decisions
CE: So, this issue finally collapses all the results of everyone’s decision-making. Poor Alice, devoted to a fault, has perished, while Jay finally listens to El and decides to leave. I was a bit surprised by Jay, the middle-of-the-road of this story, taking his sister’s side after having fallen in love with Georges. It’s nice that somebody made it out alive at the very least.
AA: I think you’ve landed on something that kinda hasn’t been working for me with the way the series has been plotted. First, as we’ve noted before, I think this entire experience would hit entirely differently as a TPB. Second, I want to know more about the character’s emotional experience from A to B. Third, some of the emotional range of the characters just aren’t bangin’ for me.
Jay goes from following Georges to the end of everything, as he is willing to give up his life for him. Then what, Georges confesses and that’s it? El is like “I’m proud of you.” And that’s it? That felt jarring to me.
I honestly don’t know if that’s because the story isn’t there or if there’s something in the rendering of emotional range and tone in the artwork? Do you have a sense of that? I also just really want more Jay and El dynamic. I am probably being selfish because I think I just find their story so interesting. I mean it’s a good thing I reckon, better to want more than less!
CE: I do agree with you wholeheartedly that the emotions in this comic seem fairly muted, with Paula being an exception with her rage. I think the decompressed nature of this book played against the emotions. There’s more space for spectacle than character moments. In rendering the gods big, we leave the characters small, in action and tone.
I’m hoping we get more El and Jay in future books, especially since we have lost Alice and Paula. How do you feel about them? It’s interesting and disheartening that the woman most devoted to Georges and the woman most antagonistic towards Georges met sad ends.
AA: I think I’m not particularly pleased with the overall treatment of the women in this. Malik gets these long expositories about why he is the way he is. Alice and Paula only seem like they are present as a means to get Malik to reveal his personality foibles. That said, the entire series is about people being expendable. It’s about how capitalism and capital inevitably warp every system they touch, even those who wish to fight against them. Still, the women feel like tissue paper to me. I could blow them down with one whoosh of air.
I’ll be frank, I’m a little disappointed. Malik could have felt like a deeper character had the supporting cast been developed more. I read somewhere a review that compared this book to a soap opera. I’m not subtweeting, or subtyping, but that’s not exactly right. People think just because something has melodrama it’s a soap opera. There are complex storylines which are usually intricately woven and developed over a period of time. I will get on my soapbox to talk about the narrative talent it takes to write a soap opera, so help me god…(s).
The point of all of this is to say: Write better women. Write complex women. Write women who aren’t driven by maternal instinctual protection for men or vengeance for men. Surely these women are motivated by more than simply the men in their life, but you wouldn’t know that. Ooo, I guess I had more feelings about this than I realized. Sorry, buddy.
CE: Truth is truth!
Arise the Dead Gods
AA: So are the gods his family? Is Malik a god now?
CE: Yeah, this was definitely the big reveal at the end of the book and the big head-scratcher, too. It took some discussion before I realized Malik was the enraged god at the end, and it’s slightly difficult for me to parse whether his family were supposed to be the gods he sees at the end. I suppose we end the whole first book with the mystery only deepening, but the slow pace is the nature of this book. Malik, the most selfish, opportunistic member of this cast, becoming a god is very interesting to me. It seems there’s no virtue associated, which seems very Greco-Roman. It also plays to the themes of happenstance we’ve been exploring. The accident on the Vihaan I, Paula’s death, Georges getting something he didn’t deserve. It’s all just because.
AA: I’m fascinated to see where the story develops from here, but I’m going to need to wait for the TPB of the next one, ’cuz the decompression is killing me. I think you’ve hit it on the ol’ dome with the Greco-Roman bit. It definitely seems that way. Which of course means this is going to end up poorly for everyone and we’ll all eventually walk away from this story a little depressed but Malik will get his in the end.
CE: Yeah, it’s been rather difficult to write about issue by issue. I think the decompression is mostly used to drive the scale, but it makes for slightly difficult discussion. I have to admit, the cliffhanger has me quite curious for further installments, but I can’t say this first chapter really held me. I think the art worked well on the gods but made for some difficult space scenes, and the fact that all the characters seemed constantly static maybe didn’t help matters. There’s neat ideas here, but mostly for one character, and I wish there was a little bit more.
Chris Eddleman is a biologist and co-host of Chrises On Infinite Earths.
