As the final chapter opens, Belial“s plan is bearing fruit right on schedule. His sons, Etrigan and Merlin lie wounded at his feet while Hell“s breach on our planet expands from Death Valley to all the major cities on DC“s Earth. Everything’s coming up demonic.
In a desperate measure to turn the tide, Merlin transfers all of his magic to an already unhinged Etrigan in the hope that this will be unexpected enough to defeat their father. Madame Xanadu is left to hold off all of the other demonic forces, while Jason Blood can only stand witness to what might be the last chance to save humanity.
This is a fun issue where Andrew Constant (Torn, Sebastian Hawks) pulls out all the stops in this battle which will reshape both Hell and Earth. If only it would reshape Etrigan“s habit of speaking in rhyming couplets, this would be perfect. As it is, both Belial and Etrigan have been fleshed out into well-developed characters in this series and that all pays off here.
Brad Walker (Green Lanterns, Aquaman, Guardians of the Galaxy) and Andrew Hennessy (All New X-Men, Titans) do a great job in translating this into action. He does a good job at distinguishing characters who do intentionally look very similar. There were very few points in the fight where I had to backtrack and make sure I knew who did what to whom.
Chris Sotomayor (Hellblazer, Snagglepuss) has made bold choices with the colors in this series. It takes skills to work overwhelmingly in purples, reds and yellows and not give the person reading it a headache. His work here yields a real lushness to the page, that in less skilled hands could have read as a muddy mess.
This has been a really fun series both for readers who haven“t had a long exposure to these characters and for those who have been following them for years. I really like the way this miniseries both introduced and grew these characters. Having a definite end to the series allows the writers and artist to challenge themselves to tell a story quickly with little room for waste. Sometimes in ongoing series, it seems it can take several issues to work through a plot point. You can“t do that in these miniseries and the strengths of these artists shine here.
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Writer: Andrew Constant
Penciller: Brad Walker
Inker: Andrew Hennessy
Colors: Chris Sotomayor
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- Sent from the future by our Robot Ape overlords to preserve the timeline. Reading and writing about comics until the revolution comes. All hail the Orangutan Android Solar King!
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