Julian Demond is on a mission to find God, but when he does Demond gets more than he bargained for in Clive Barker’s Next Testament Vol. 1.

Julian is on an exhibition in the desert searching for something.  He runs and trips over the tip of a pyramid in the sand. When he digs the hole deeper and deeper he uncovers a huge monument.  Julian takes a hammer and starts destroying the monument and releases a blinding flash of light.

After the light fades away a colorful figure emerges.  Its name is Wick The Father of Colors also known as God.

Julian’s son, Tristan, gets a sudden feeling something is wrong with his father.  Tristan and his fiancée Elspeth go to Julian’s home to check on him, but he is not there.  They go to his secret study only to be welcomed by the ramblings of a mad man. As they look for clues as to his whereabouts they only fall deeper into his madness.

Wick wants Julian to show him what he’s missed since he has been imprisoned.  When Wick reads the Bible he identifies himself as the God of the Old Testament, but not the same as the God of the New Testament.  Wick is not happy with the way the world has turned out and decides to bring some changes about like reducing the population.

Tristan and Elspeth are on a mad dash to stop Julian and Wick before it is too late.

Clive Barker’s Next Testament Vol. 1 was written by Clive Barker and Mark L. Miller with art by Haemi Jang.  BOOM! Studios published the volume in 2014.

This was a fascinating read and concept.  I am no biblical scholar, but I do know the God of the Old and New Testaments are very different.  It was really interesting to see the Old Testament God come back and make these decisions which will impact the world forever.  It is really scary to think about how do you stop that or if you even can. You may just have to accept it as everything changes.

The only way I could see Wick being stop is to have the New Testament God fight Wick.  What a battle that would be. However, how do you get that God’s help?

I liked this comic, but it felt too long.  The series has three volumes and I think that is two too many.  It dragged in some places and could have used some more action and story.  If this volume was a little longer I think it could have wrapped up really nicely in one volume.  A one and done graphic novel format would have been perfect for this story.

The concept was excellent and I liked almost everything about the volume, but I think this story was stretched out way too much.

Rating:

4/5

Related Posts:

Comic Review Young Justice #2: The Identity Game

Female Furies #1 Are Not To Be Trifled With

Comic Rewind: Deadly Class Vol. 1