Akogun continues his path of destruction, oblivious to the past deeds of the gods that had set him down this road. Your Major Spoilers review of Akogun: Brutalizer of Gods #2, awaits!

AKOGUN: BRUTALIZER OF GODS #2

Writer: Murewa Ayodele
Artist: Dotun Akande
Colorist: Dee Cunniffe
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elahou
Editor: Karl Bollers
Publisher: Oni Press
Cover Price: $5.99
Release Date: June 5th, 2024

Previously in Akogun: Brutalizer of Gods, a pantheon of violent and clever gods scheme and feud with each other. Akogun is a hunter whose people were slaughtered by a band of raiders while he was out one day, forcing him to seek vengeance in the most violent means he can.

GODS BE RASSLIN’

Akogun: Brutalizer of Gods #2 begins with Akogun in the middle of hacking and slashing a band of raiders to thin slices. As he rages, he’s surprised by an arrow that passes through his armor into his flesh. He is then riddled with a few more arrows before passing out. Things then shift to the past up in the heavens. There the god of war and his wife make love, before he is set to fight a challenger to the title of god of war, who happens to also be the god of storms. The two do battle and the challenger comes out victorious. In the present Akogun struggles to stay alive, while seeing images of his past, except with the face of a trickster god invading them in choice places. In the past the fallen god of war seeks answers to why his strength failed him.

TIPTOEING BETWEEN STORY AND MYTH

Akogun: Brutalizer of Gods #2 continues to find a way to wield the illogical and fantastical elements of a myth to tell a fairly straightforward story. Also, the setting and style continue to be spot on and engaging in their own right, which is a saving grace here because when all that flavor is stripped away, the plot here is a bare-bones revenge story, even the stuff dealing with the gods, lacks complexity. This comic trades almost exclusively on its brutality, violence, and sex, which it does very well, the only problem is that it doesn’t feel as well utilized as it did in the first issue. The violence doesn’t come off as being necessary here, it doesn’t help shape the world any more than it has already done, nor does it deepen any of the main characters. Not to say that this is a necessary thing for violence and sex to do, readers just need to be aware that this issue is more spectacle than anything else, with just enough flavor to make it slightly more interesting than a pure hack-and-slash comic book. The reason why the issues of these parts of the comic are so apparent is because the things that do happen that are more subtle and slower, come off as treading over familiar ground from the previous issue. A good portion of this comic is once again Akogun’s memories, much like the previous issue was a mixture of his and his father’s memories and they are very similar, which makes it feel like I was reading sections of that first issue again, just in this comic.

BOTTOM LINE: REMAINS A COMPELLING AND INTENSE READ, BUT CRACKS ARE SHOWING

Akogun: Brutalizer of Gods continues to deliver what it promises, an African inspired tale of gods, warriors, violence, sex, and magic. In this regard, the issue is an absolute homerun. The problems come from there being very little else to give these elements context or purpose, which makes a lot of this issue border on being gratuitous and uninspired. Some hints towards the end of this issue suggest that we’ll be getting some more twists and turns in the plot, but two issues in, and things are too straightforward. 3 out of 5 stars.

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