American Gods vol 2 h/c back

In which we are invited to think of the physical world as a theatre.

Would you like to look backstage?

"I've never been overly concerned with morality.
"Not as long as I get what I want."

What Wednesday wants is to reassert the power of the old gods - so many forgotten that their powers are dwindling - over the new gods of technology which we worship instead.

To do so he has enlisted the help of widower and ex-convict Shadow, and to that end Wednesday was almost certainly responsible for making Shadow a widower, positioning him exactly where Wednesday wanted him.

Everything appears to have been arranged.

Everyone appears to have been arranged, especially Shadow.

Tellingly, this begins with a tale of two grafts, which Wednesday was wont to execute with another. His is the long game, but he's been patient for long enough.

For an in-depth review of AMERICAN GODS please see volume one which we made Page 45 Comicbook Of The Month. This is merely here to alert you to the presence of this second of three instalments which once more sees Shadow with no real control either over his environment or indeed fate, hence the gloriously hyper-real art within which he doesn't sit quite right at all. It's all so supremely well judged.

There are sleights of hand aplenty, and non-sequiturs deployed as distractions.

It's a road trip back and forth across America, throughout time and indeed its mythologies.

You'll meet self-appointed authorities with names like Mister Town and Mister Road, Mister Wood and Mister Stone, and ultimately Mister World. Like all authorities, they're only ideas. You can reject them if you've the willpower. Miz Black Crow does. I think you'll like Miz Black Crow. She's a cathartic antidote, and bloody hilarious in the process.

Meanwhile, both sides are manoeuvring for position, and it's going to get messy.

"We're writing the future in letters of fire."

That future is fast approaching.

"Well, Shadow, do you believe yet?"
"I don't know."

Was all that suitably ominous for you?