10 Good Omens Moments We Can’t Wait to See In New Record-Breaking Adaptation

Summary

• The upcoming adaptation of
  Good Omens
  by acclaimed artist Colleen Doran brings the beloved novel to life on the comic book page, offering opportunities to visualize the ambitious story in ways that the TV adaptation cannon.
• From iconic central characters Aziraphale and Crowley, to prophet Agnes Nutter, to the mysterious Metatron, the
  Good Omens
  graphic novel will be a unique and exciting take on the story.
• Doran has proven that she has a knack for illustrating Neil Gaiman’s work during their previous collaborations, making her the perfect artist to bring
  Good Omens
  into the comic book medium.

Good Omens is coming to the comic book world. The hilariously fantastical Armageddon tale by veteran writers Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett has been a staple of the cozy fantasy community since 1990. With a new adaptation on the way from artist Colleen Doran, fans might see an entirely different iteration of everyone’s favorite angel/demon duo.

After a record-breaking Kickstarter that beat its goal in just ten minutes, a Good Omens graphic novel is nearly finished, and it promises to be a faithful adaptation as it flourishes in Doran’s classical nineties style, in the spirit of when the book was published.

Working together to keep the fantastical elements as well as the inevitable humor, this brilliant team of Gaiman and Doran offers a dreamlike rabbit-hole for fan-favorite moments to come to life in a new, storybook world.

10 Readers Are Anxious To Get A Glimpse Of Good Omens’ Garden Of Eden

Setting The Tone

Setting up the comical flavor for the rest of the story, the opening prologue of Good Omens introduces the two key characters of the book: the angel and part-time book dealer Aziraphale and the demon Crowley, who “did not so much fall as saunter vaguely downwards.” These dual forces, who from the very start already seem like the best of friends, are the dynamic push that drives the themes of good versus evil to its apocalyptic conclusions.

Here, in the Garden of Eden, just after Adam and Eve’s expulsion, Colleen Doran will introduce her version of the opposed pair, depicting them as guardian angel and snake chatting calmly. It is this scene that will set the tone for the rest of the graphic novel, as Doran expands her style, one that belongs to the world of dreamlike fairy tales, to fit Good Omens’ ambitious storyline

9 Readers Will Be Thrilled When The Satanic Nuns Swap The Antichrist

The Inciting Incident

The introduction of Sister Mary Loquacious also introduces the main plot of the book, in the form of a human baby. Part of the Satanic Chattering Order of St. Beryl, the nuns are tasked with swapping the Antichrist into an affluent and powerful family, so that he might grow into his powers and rule the world. Naturally, these chit-chatty anti-nuns do the job incorrectly and swap the soon-to-be Antichrist into a family of no importance.

With a plot like this, it can truly be understood how Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett were trying to make each other laugh while writing Good Omens. The slapstick comedy of these secretly Satanist nuns shines clearly in the book as well as the television adaptation, but the comedy can only be enhanced by peeking under their wimples and seeing just how Doran will imagine them on the page.

8 The Death Of Agnes Nutter Will Satisfy Good Omens’ Fans Burning Desire

Essential Backstory

The entire plot hinges on a book of (nice and accurate) prophecies by a witch named Agnes Nutter whose descendant, a witch herself, just happens to get involved with a descendant of her killer, the witchfinder Thou-Shalt-Not-Commit-Adultery Pulsifer. Though the burning doesn’t go as the witchfinder planned, thanks to a lot of fore-planned gunpowder.

Agnes Nutter is the face behind all the good and bad things that happen in the book. Having worked with Neil Gaiman on graphic novels such as Snow, Glass, Apple and Sandman, Colleen Doran understands how to bring a fantasy to life. This scene of a witch-burning gone wrong will feel like dreamy interludes in Doran’s ethereal style of storybook fables. In fact, this short scene plays very much like a folk tale. Albeit a silly one with more than memorable names.

7 Aziraphale Possession Of Madame Tracy Will Be High Comedy On The Page

1/2 Good Omens’ Dynamic Duo

After being dragged back to Heaven, Aziraphale enacts a decidedly demonic method by possessing the body of Madame Tracy, an occultist and medium – just so he can continue helping Crowley. Both of them are trying to stop the apocalypse, and in Aziraphale’s case, he thinks that’s what God would (ineffably) do. Whether God would possess the body of an old lady remains to be seen.

Aziraphale is the kindest, most British angel in Heaven’s army, even as he’s best friends with a demon. The preview images of him are already heartwarming, and to see his expressions splayed across the face of an entirely different character can add pieces of comedy that no other adaptation can touch. Unlike television adaptations, the artist can contort the characters on the page into whatever position best fits the story. For Good Omens, that story is the punchline.

6 It Will Be Awesome To Behold Crowley Saving The Day In His Beloved Bentley

The Other Half Of Good Omens‘ Odd Couple

Near the climax of the story, Crowley races towards the site of the rumbling Apocalypse in his destroyed Bentley, purely by imagining that the burning metal, rubber, and leather is a fully-functioning automobile. That 1926 Black Bentley is a personal favorite of Crawley’s which, cursed as it is, can only play Queen no matter which tape is in the player. The car gets him to where he needs to go in a flourishing style, even if it is on fire.

Crowley is a fan-favorite contrarian, whether being played by David Tennant or Peter Serafinowicz. However, the preview images of Doran’s Crowley reveal a slicker and smoother devil that certainly belongs behind the wheel of an old Bentley. Nothing will look better than the comic splash of that burning car flying across the pages as a bedraggled Crowley almost falls out of the flaming heap of junk.

5 Colleen Doran Can Offer The Definitive Dog in His Original Hellhound Form

Jolting Imagery Brought To Life

This fiendish horror of hell is certainly no joke when it arrives on Adam’s eleventh birthday. Its description is of a grotesque, snarling, saliva-dripping hellhound, and it’s come to be the Antichrist’s servant and his guardian. This is all just a set-up, however, as the punchline comes with Adam transforming the vicious creature into a tiny, yapping dog named: Dog.

Words can only do so much to paint the picture in the mind. For Dog’s metamorphosis to land as a joke, his previous form has to be vile and eye-popping; Doran is a veteran at drawing fantastical beasts and monsters, especially in the worlds of Neil Gaiman. Seeing as how her art plays like a bedtime story, this adaptation can be expected to balance both the terror of the wolf and the simplicity of Little Red Riding Hood.

4 Hastur Chasing Crowley Through A Telephone Will Be Among The Adaptation’s Most Memorable Moments

Demonic Chase Sequence

A demon is nothing if it is not rebelling, even against his own kind, and Crowley demonstrated that when he raced through a telephone, bouncing between connections. Fellow demon Hastur chased him through this liminal space in between rings in an effort to drag him back to hell. But Crowley pops out of a different phone and traps his friend-turned-enemy in the voicemail of the very British “ansaphone”.

The quirkiness of this situation, so unique to a literary plot point, can’t quite be pictured in the mind’s eye without the help of the splashing of a comic book page. The draw of a comic book is its ability to show a story that can’t be told in any other medium. While Amazon’s season 3 of Good Omens threatens to disappoint its fan base, a moment like this translates better to the illustrated page, where anything is possible.

Wide Open To Interpretation

In Good Omens, Metatron gets a comical makeover as the Voice of God, as he takes on the role of a presidential press secretary, showing up after the President fumbled and trying to clear up the mess with a few politically-correct terms. This is especially true at the advent of the apocalypse when he arrives to clean up the mess that Adam the Antichrist, Aziraphale, and Crowley have all made.

If Aziraphale is any reference to how angels will be depicted in this world, Metatron can be expected to be beautiful and striking. In regard to his appearance, Doran has full reign to illustrate Metratron however she wishes, given that his description in the book only says “a young man made out of golden fire.” For an artist, a simple sentence like that has endless possibilities.

Neil Gaiman has several other novels that have been adapted into graphic novels,including
How to Talk to Girls at Parties
and
American Gods.

2 Beezlebub Manifesting To Start The Apocalypse Will Be Key To Good Omens’ Themes

Preserving The Essence Of The Original

Beezlebub, the prince of Hell, comes onto the scene the same time as Metatron, only for the opposing side. With a comical fly-like lisp, he really can’t do anything that intimidates Adam, the son of his own boss, into losing his willpower. In fact, if the adaptation stays true, then Beezlebub and all his demons won’t be as scary as expected.

The demons of the world of Good Omens aren’t scary – if anything, they’re silly like over-the-top Halloween costumes. Neil Gaiman is no stranger to fantastical demons. Having worked on The Sandman at the same time as Good Omens, he let the worlds blend with his own idea of what hell would be like: more bureaucratic than anything else. Even when the demons appear macabre, they are only ever harmless creatures, and this climactic moment will be pivotal to bringing to life that fairy tale quality of the powerlessness of monsters.

1 Introducing The Four Horsepersons Of The Apocalypse

Colleen Doran Previously Drew Death In Neil Gaiman’s Sandman #20

At the peak of the Apocalypse, the Four Horsepersons of War, Famine, Pollution, and Death face off against the Antichrist and his gang of kids called The Them. While they took more humanoid forms earlier in the story, the Horsepersons are now only vaguely humanoid in shape, described as looking akin to the very things they represent.

As Amazon’s adaptation confirms season 3, the heralds of the end times are still the most anticipated moment for both Good Omens adaptations. Just how Colleen Doran plans on depicting these abstract ideals is something only an artist can answer. As seen by her work in other fantasy tales, there is truly no one better suited to the task of defining these otherworldly elements than Colleen Doran. As for this adaptation of Good Omens, the comic Apocalypse will have wait just a little while longer.

Source:
Good Omens
by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett