Godfell intrigued me with two provocative elements on its cover, protagonist Zanzi Vuiline influencing me the most. Since Blizzard designed the female version of the Barbarian class in Diablo III—not the svelte Heroes of the Storm Sonya design, but the Death By Snu Snu-sized classic avatar—I’ve possessed an affinity for BIIIIIIG GIRLS in fiction: Zarya in Overwatch, Dawnbreaker in DotA 2, and even though I don’t play League of Legends, I purchased The Ruined King because Illaoi caught my attention. For real-life characters to consider, Viola Davis put on ~10 lbs of muscle at the age of 56 for The Woman King, an impressive feat since she’s (only) 5’5; Danai Gurira established her taciturn reputation as Michonne, and then and Okoye at 5’7; everyone loved Lucy Lawless as Xena at 5’10; Lashana Lynch also made an impression in The Woman King at 5’9. While claiming favorite characters in The Song of Fire and Ice series presents risk, Gwendoline Christie’s Brianne of Tarth at 6’3 impresses as well as intimidates.
Thus, I came for the square-framed Zanzi and enjoyed her Conan impression for a time. During Godfell’s opening pages, she believes she has slain her final foe in a war that has robbed her of precious years. However, the generals pull a 1984-style Two Minutes of Hate: nay, there remains yet another opposing army to vanquish on behalf of the king. Zanzi unceremoniously deserts. When the quartermasters still inebriated from the faux victory ask her about her intentions as she absconds with a horse, she replies “I need to hurt someone. It does not have to be you.” She rides until the biological need for sleep and sustenance postpones her journey. During this time, she encounters the diminutive Neth, a random traveler who doesn’t care where Zanzi is headed but recognizes what safety looks like amidst the bedlam of war when she sees it. Neth interprets Zanzi’s ambivalence as acquiescence and tags along. When Zanzi says that she’s headed home—preferably in a straight line—Neth informs Zanzi of this impossibility because the body of god has fallen from the sky and impedes her path. Zanzi’s astonishment obliterates her doubt when the two encounter god’s body in the canyon created upon its impact with the earth.
Because circumventing the corpse would take weeks, Zanzi determines to travel straight through its body despite Neth’s protests, for god’s body has attracted interested parties of all types. Here, I compliment Chris Sebela’s worldbuilding. Here, I arrive at the comic’s second proactive element: a fallen god precipitates its events. So, Godfell is the sardonic name for the site of the god’s corpse, and opportunists having erected a settlement for a grave. The cadaver’s organs are its economy, and opportunists have plundered for three annums. But three factions with conflicting motivations vie for control within: the Fellnacht, the Seat of Love, and the Nihli. Ben Hennessy compliments Sebela’s vision with excellent art. I wish Zanzi and Neth possessed character depth complimenting their universe.
Zanzi embodies a power fantasy, though for whom I am unsure. I mean “Conan impression” almost literally; replace Zanzi with him and Sebela couldn’t convince me of the difference. While Hennessy additionally references Xena: Warrior Princess and Cassandra from Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey to inform Zanzi’s design, my concern stems from Zanzi’s brutality. As the mightiest human warrior, she strategizes with a combat acumen for churning foes into ground beef while surreptitiously yearning for an assailant that will put her out of her misery for she lies to Neth that she has a wife waiting for her at home.
That’s one miss—Zanzi has a wife. I’m not knocking queer representation. I’m disappointed in the missed opportunity for Zanzi to describe a husband, a domestic dad caring for their child while she fights in the war. This would have been provocatively transgressive. Instead, given Zanzi’s intimidating size and might, the panel illustrating her femme wife is rote and cliché.
The second miss is more fundamental: why is Zanzi Black? While her melanin got my attention, I am increasingly scrutinizing of white authors featuring Black characters. Rendering a protagonist as Black should be an intentional, not arbitrary or “color blind” choice. I’m willing to accept “Black people exist; deal with it,” works under normal circumstances, but Zanzi is not a normal character. Only alien or monstrous beings are stronger than she, for she is seemingly monstrous and alien herself. Plenty of Black and brown background characters exist in Godfell, but Zanzi is the only named Black character. Therefore, Zanzi clears the tokenism hurdle only to stumble upon inexplicable exceptionalism. Sebela and Hennessy explain how factions in this world come into fruition, but now how Zanzi acquires her prodigious size and strength. “Women can be physically strong(er soldiers than men); deal with it,” is harder to swallow. At least her size is somewhat proportional to her strength.
Still, the arbitrary Blackness bothers me. I think with the regression of DEI initiatives combined with a right-shifting Overton Window, I think choices like depicting Zanzi as Black in a comic published in 2024 necessitates deliberation. Sebela provides more insight into Neth with her backstory than details about Zanzi in hers. Why so brusque and indurate? I wish Sebela and Hennessy had done more with Zanzi’s race than just tick the diversity box. If Zanzi were white like the Xena or Red Sonja archetypes, I wouldn’t have skipped a beat.
The third miss concerns the lack of growth for Zanzi and Neth. Sebela adopts an unconventional approach to their bonding during their adventure, the former’s laconic disposition obstructing progress. Likewise, Neth nurses secrets, piling onto Zanzi’s; they’re both playing games with each other up until the Nihli force the former’s disclosures via tentacle spinal tap. But they both remain unchanged. Neth dispensing with pretending to be a frail, helpless thing is no more a transformation than Zanzi counting from one Mississippi to two before smashing skulls.
I still recommend reading Godfell as a good romp where Sebela’s worldbuilding deserves exploration. How people behave in response to the fallen god is very interesting, while Zanzi and Neth serve as conduits for the readers’ trek through it. I just wish they were more three-dimensional as the readers’ guides. guides for this were more three-dimensional.