Review of "Groo Play of the Gods," by Sergio Aragones, comic

 Review of

Groo Play of the Gods, by Sergio Aragones, comic

Five out of five stars

A satire on the age of European exploration

 The Groo character is of course the ultimate in incompetence and a super jinx to all that surrounds him. In this case, he somehow manages to be on a ship that has left Europe and is going to recently discovered lands in order to claim them in the name of the queen. As part of that claim, the “savages” are to be converted to the one true religion, where there is only one true god (Diothos) and all others are false. Furthermore, there is a significant thirst for gold among many of the crew members. Groo is primarily interested in food.

 There is a heaven where all the gods, including Diothos and all others worshiped as gods reside. These are not the vengeful and flighty gods of mythology and the western religions; in fact, they dismiss much of what is said and done supposedly on their behalf. Such statements by the gods is refreshing, for all thinking people have to wonder at some point what a god would think of brutal things being done in their name.

 This is satire at its best and is in fact much more historically accurate that some of the documents used to justify European control of other lands. The primary motives were always political and economic power, with little in the way of genuinely trying to help and understand the people the Europeans encountered.