Pantheons of the Megaverse (1994) is a bit like what if Deities & Demigods, but Rifts. But also, not as cool. I don’t know if that is because Deities has a whiff of scandal about it, or if I find Pantheons confused, or if it just boils down to the art not being as wow as I want it to be (Kevin Long only contributes to the Norse gods; I don’t dislike the work of Wayne Breaux, Vince Martin, Tom Miller, Newton Ewell and Roger Peterson, but I do think Long anchors Rifts in a way they don’t, and I miss him).

Why confused? Because it’s Rifts. Gods can’t just be gods, they have to cross dimensions/genres at every possible opportunity. Hecate has Witchblade armor (which, OK, impressive since Witchblade came out the following year), Krishna’s goth, Asgardian dwarves are gunsmiths, Shiva looks like an Ultimate Weapon from Final Fantasy (again, ahead of the curve, but still). Then there is “Huitzilopochtli, the Warrior of the Sun, full conversion cyborg.” And he just looks like a ‘roided out Coaltion bot.

Worse, there are all these impostor gods running around. There are three versions of the Oympian gods. I can barely parse the core pantheons, let alone the knock-offs. When I say I often find Rifts exhausting, this book is the best embodiment of my fatigue that I have encountered so far. And even then…John Zeleznik’s cover is cool enough that I probably won’t get rid of the book. Frickin’ Rifts.