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Olympus Heights #4
Writer: Kevin Munroe
Artist: Kevin Munroe (Cover w/Brian Beppu)
Letters: Robbie Robbins and Cindy Chapman
Publisher: IDW Publishing
5.00 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by Louis Vitela
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Kevin Munroe's Olympus Heights is a feat of pure, fun storytelling with generous helpings of mystery, suspense, and adventure. Issue #4 picks up in the middle of the action with no backstory, but new readers should be able to glean the preceding events from the contents of this chapter.
Munroe does a good job of revealing the characters through both realistic dialogue and soliloquy. Indeed, the cartoony, caricature-like style allows the characters to communicate without any words at all. Oliver's wide eyes and open face tell of his innocence and eagerness, for example.
Also excellent is the sense of perspective, regardless of the panel size. One of the best illustrations of this is a panel that depicts a silhouetted Zeus squaring off against Hades' army. The king of the Olympians looks tiny and vulnerable when set beside Hades' imposing and ferocious army, all in a panel only a couple of inches wide.
Most amusing this issue was the collection of cameo appearances by the other gods of the pantheon. Aphrodite is a gossip columnist in a low-cut dress; Dionysus is a drunk in a Seattle pub, drawn to look like a dot-com startup CEO who fell with the bursting bubble; and Artemis, goddess of the hunt, is a paparazzi, hunting down celebrity photo opportunities.
The themes in Olympus Heights are big, perhaps even bigger than Munroe was conscious of when he sat down to write. Zeus' goal—which is extremely unpopular with his family—is to have himself and his immortal kin learn to live as mortals and thus learn to combine humanity with their divinity. There's a nice piece of writing where Zeus assesses his own progress: “I pay taxes, got divorced, and hate the president. Can you get any more mortal than that?”
Although comics with mature themes have their place, Olympus Heights presents a charming story for all ages, innocent only so far as the themes of good vs evil, the importance of family, and the hunt for self-actualization are innocent themes. Next issue will conclude this series, but it will hopefully not be the last time Mr. Monroe allows us to visit Olympus Heights.
—CCdC— Cover image supplied by publisher.
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