‘American Gods‘ is keeping up with the times by giving us new details about Vulcan, God of Guns. With gun control always being such a sensitive subject in the United States it will be interesting to see how Corbin Bernsen (‘Psych’) will be portraying this God and if they’ll be using him for social commentary or not. The original intent actually had Neil Gaiman penning the episode he was in before time constraints got in the way so if he at all survived as initially envisioned, I suspect commentary will be abound with this one.
When talking about the character, co-showrunner Michael Green states:
“He’s a brand-new addition who came from an experience Neil had. He was going through a small town in Alabama where he saw a statue of Vulcan. It was a steel town and, as he told the story, there was a factory that had a series of accidents where people were killed on the job and they kept happening because an actuarial had done the numbers and realized that it was cheaper to pay out the damages to the families of people who lost people, rather than to shut down the factory long enough to repair, and that occurred to him as modern a definition of sacrifice as there might be.”
When combining that, being the God of Guns, and how Neil Gaiman generally comes across as this will be quite an interesting take on such a God. Not only that, but we’ve got a shot of him in the image below which suggests that he is quite the hunter as well.
It will be interesting to see what side Vulcan takes in the war between the old gods and the new. Traditionally he was the Roman god of Volcanoes and the forge though has maintained his power and flock through guns and ammunition so it will be hard to see where his loyalties lie.
According to Bryan Fuller on their inspiration for the character:
“We started talking about America’s obsession with guns and gun control and, really, if you’re holding a gun in your hand, it’s a mini volcano, and perhaps, through this character, there’s a conversation to be had.”
Interesting to say the least.
What are your thoughts on Vulcan’s evolution in ‘American Gods’? Will he be on the side of the old or the new deities? Share your thoughts below!
Synopsis:
When Shadow Moon is released from prison, he meets the mysterious Mr. Wednesday and a storm begins to brew. Little does Shadow know, this storm will change the course of his entire life. Left adrift by the recent, tragic death of his wife, and suddenly hired as Mr. Wednesday’s bodyguard, Shadow finds himself in the center of a world that he struggles to understand. It’s a world where magic is real, where the Old Gods fear both irrelevance and the growing power of the New Gods, like Technology and Media. Mr. Wednesday seeks to build a coalition of Old Gods to defend their existence in this new America, and reclaim some of the influence that they’ve lost. As Shadow travels across the country with Mr. Wednesday, he struggles to accept this new reality, and his place in it.
Source: EW
Stuart Conover is an author, blogger, and all around geek. When not busy being a father and husband he tries to spend as much time as possible immersed in comic books, science fiction, and horror! Would you like to know more? Follow him on Twitter!
