In 1986, David Brin published “Thor Meets Captain America,” an alternate history in which American soldiers faced the Norse gods, necromantically summoned by mass human sacrifice to aid the Nazis during World War II. The Life Eaters both extends that story and translates it into a different medium, the graphic novel. I believe this is David Brin's first comic book script; but his use of the medium is consistently effective, and Scott Hampton's art well suits the grim world Brin describes.

This story explores one of Brin's recurrent themes: the dangers of those who consider themselves raised above human beings, entitled to spend human lives for their own higher purposes. In this setting, they are gods, or purported gods, empowered by human sacrifice. Brin envisions an alliance of Muslims, Christians, and Jews as a central element in the opposition to them, one looking back to the Old Testament's prohibition of human sacrifice. Gods and aristocrats may be fascinating, Brin suggests, but giving in to that fascination is a fatal mistake (much the same point that Terry Pratchett makes in Lords and Ladies, where the witches of Lancre battle the allure of the elves).

But to battle such superhuman forces, Brin's heroes need to assume superhumanity themselves — and after all, this is a comic book, the home of the superhero. But Brin's defenders of humanity have an important difference: after their victory, they put off their superhumanity, returning to human life, a climax much like that of Vernor Vinge's classic “True Names.”

“Thor Meets Captain America” was one of Brin's best stories, partly because it's an idea he's passionate about. The Life Eaters grows out of that same passion. And it's one that many readers of Prometheus may view sympathetically, whether they're long-time fans of graphic novels or The Life Eaters is their first encounter with the form. Brin finds the concept of superheroes imaginatively appealing, but ultimately he concludes that human beings must save themselves and not turn to superior power for protection — and that's a clearly libertarian message.