REVIEW: Devil's Dominion No.5

Black Box Comics is a relatively unknown company, but with storytelling like “Devil’s Dominion” in their regular rotation, that should not be the case for too long.

“Devil’s Dominion” has a small team carrying out a big story with Brian Hawkins pulling out a script that is reminiscent of Buffy with a twist of the Halle Berry film “Gothika”. Forte and Napoli bring Hawkin’s script with images that evoke the golden years of Joe Quesada’s role as editor-in-chief at Marvel, back when Marvel MAX was king and Ultimate series’ was still overseen by Brian Michael Bendis.

There has always been something special about watching a girl in a crop top, questionably in her late teen’s or early twenties, run around going head to head in a fight with paranormal entities. Joss Whedon and Bendis both understood this and the team behind “Devil’s Dominion” are able to capitalize and carry on tradition from where those two titans made their mark. New readers can fall right into the issue as the main character, Devilynn St. Paul wakes up in a VA jail cell. The whole thing gets kind of blurry from there though as prison guards morph into demons and Devilynn gets coerced into making a play to save a lover of her from death himself ripped straight from Greek mythology : Thanatos.

In “Devil’s Dominion” you get enough popped cops to incite a Blue Lives Matter rally, demon manifestations, flying bullets, and three sexy girls caught up in a love triangle right in the middle of it, and yes, the main one got her hair style off a Roy Ayers soundtrack cover and the main plotline just might all be in her head.

All that plus a carjacking that would make gamers want to reconsider spending their money on the latest add-on to GTA and instead cop this issue to fulfill their cheap thrills. “Devil’s Dominion” might have a sexy throwback style to entice readers, but the rhetoric on mental health and social justice issues snuck in to the panels are what will stay deep in reader’s minds and have them begging for more attention brought to this underserved rag.

Score : 5/5

(W) Brian Hawkins (A) Sara Ianniello (A/CA) Raffaele Forte