‘God Hates Astronauts Volume 1: The Head That Wouldn’t Die!’ - Ryan Browne (Image Comics)

 


Page Count: 180 Pages

When I was reading ‘Eight Billion Genies’, the other day, the blurb reminded me that Ryan Browne had written ‘God Hates Astronauts’; one of many comic book series where I’ve picked up an issue or two but for some reason, never kept reading. There are many reasons, for that, by the way; limited budget, plain forgetfulness and so on…

Anyway. ‘God Hates Astronauts’ is a title that stuck in my mind enough for me to find a cheap copy (job has ended now, don’t judge me…) and finally see what the story is all about. Having finished Volume 1…? I’ve honestly got no idea but it was a lot of fun to read :o)

Have some blurb…

God Hates Astronauts follows the story of a group of incompetent, small-minded, super powered narcissists called "The Power Persons Five" who are hired by NASA to stop all farmers from launching themselves into space in homemade rocket ships. Unfortunately for NASA, this goal is scarcely even addressed and the book focuses more on extramarital affairs, bank-robbing owls, big gross swollen heads, ghost cow heads, olde tyme boxers, tigers eating cheeseburgers in the Crab Nebula, buffalo judges, and tons of aggressive swearing. Not so much a superhero book as it is a parody of basically everything and a celebration of weird that is jam-packed with references to RoboCop and Die Hard.

Seriously, I have no idea what this book is about. Not even the blurb here really knows what it’s supposed to be blurbing. And as far as the title goes, I couldn’t say one way or the other. There is the vaguest hint of a plot here but literally only for a panel or two. And then the inherent chaos of ‘God Hates Astronauts’ takes over and it’s anyone’s guess as to where things go next. The ‘plot’ just gave up at that point, grabbed some popcorn and settled down for the show.

And you know what…? ‘The Head That Wouldn’t Die’ was all the more fun for Browne’s decision to just throw whatever comes to mind at the page and see what happens next. I’ll be honest, I’m still trying to get my head round what I just read but what I do know is that when I wasn’t laughing out loud, I was saying to myself, ‘they’re not going to… are they?’ And then they did and it was brilliant. Brilliantly drawn as well; I couldn't take my eyes off the page.

And any comic that throws in a little ‘RoboCop’, just for the hell of it, gets my vote. I can’t say when I’ll be able to get to the next couple of volumes (again, job…) but ‘God Hates Astronauts’ is very much on my radar now and I’m keen to see what happens next; because if ‘The Head That Wouldn’t Die!’ is anything to go by, that could be literally anything :o)

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