Noah

Published by: Image Comics
Released on: Mar. 19, 2014
Writer: Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel
Artist: Niko Henrichon
Cover: Niko Henrichon
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Image Comics brings to the table a graphic novel adaptation of the film Noah, the already controversial movie telling the bible story of Noah and his ark during the great flood. You know two lions, two giraffes…that whole thing. It's an old story told countless times and there's little value in rehashing it here. Aronofsky's and Handel's script doesn't follow the bible very faithfully, taking many liberties with characters the bible talks about, which tends to get certain group's panties in a bunch. What better way to get publicity for a movie than to piss off Christians and Atheists? Surely this must have been on the minds of those involved when the concept of this telling was hashed out.

At any rate, the comic plays out pretty much exactly like a blockbuster action/drama/CG wankfest, being as one hundred percent predictable as those crowd pleasers almost always are. It follows the formula, including large scale settings and backgrounds, hero shots, giant monsters that threaten and then become allies, rifts within the family, the insane patriarch that risks it all for a dream, the triumph…all that crap. This comic is just that from start to finish. It cooks right along too, and before you know it you've read the whole thing and perhaps left with an empty feeling. The story told by the three men is pretty superficial, but not entirely void of some interesting things.

For one, the six-armed fallen angels. These things are giants that everyone fears and Noah and his family must pass through their realm to get to the other side. The giant angel's involvement in the story is pretty much to set up one angel/giant in particular named Og to be a martyr for the cause. He befriends Noah and helps him to escape the others giants, and then to help him win them over to be free labor in building the ark. The use of these creatures isn't the interesting part about them, but the brief back story of how they came to be stuck on Earth is. And the concept of three arms per wing (when they were angels) is pretty cool.

Another neat thing is the ark itself, which seems to be the size of an aircraft carrier and looks like a cigar box. The true miracle in this tale is that the thing could even float. But it is magnificent and will surely be a sight to behold on the big screen…when created with pixels. And the animals on the ark are worthy of comment, as some of have never before been seen by humans since the days of Noah. They must have died on the ark. But they are cool looking, and will most probably look great on the big screen…created by pixels.

One thing to note in Image's book is the absence “God” or “Lord” actually being written. Instead, God is referred to as “the creator”. This could be a mis-statement, but memory says God is mentioned on a number of occasions in the bible, specifically in the Book of Genesis, a book this comic quotes a number of times. It's a curious thing, and one has to wonder if the movie also omits “God” from the script. Take the first quote the comic uses for example: “And The Creator saw upon that the wickedness of man was great…” referring to “The Creator” instead of “The Lord” as in the bible. Purpose?

Something the book does have going for it is the artwork by Niko Henrichon. His style is appealing and quite detailed, and his best stuff in the book is during the start of the flooding rain and the chaos that ensues. His colors are very effective, using mostly muted hues that give the book a desolate feel. And his landscapes are well done, making the setting feel almost post-apocalyptic rather than pre-apocalyptic.

The book is by no means a bad book. It's entertaining in a mind-numbing way, just not engaging. If you can look past the liberties taken by the creative team, such as Noah being a PITA poster boy or fallen angels turning to six-armed cave trolls, it certainly isn't something to avoid. Just don't come to the table expecting fantastic comic book entertainment.