By: J. Michael Straczynski (writer), Ben Templesmith (art) and Troy Peteri (letters)
The Story: A hard-boiled PI gets involved with a demonic cult.
Review (with very minor SPOILERS): There’s not a whole lot to say about this comic. The story is derivative and not reason enough to buy the comic, and while Templesmith’s art is pretty strong, you can get Templesmith art from various collected editions because he’s not really breaking new ground (for him) here.
So what makes me call the story derivative? Well, the main character is a private investigator or hit man or something. I guess most people would call him “hard boiled” because that’s a shorter word than “unshaven, dirty, rumpled clothes, heavy drinker, no family”. Of course, this dude works out of the seedy side of town where he gets approached by a young woman who wants him to do a job. And (of course) she is earnest and (of course) she can only barely afford his fee and (of course) the case has some past connection to the PI. It’s just very cliche and since it happens in the first few pages of the comic, your attention is already beginning to wander.
As it turns out, the case involves demonic forces and angels and stuff like that. Surely some people groove on that sort of thing, but I don’t. Summoned demons, possessive demons, angles being summoned into the bodies of mortals, etc. Yuck. If you love that sort of story, there might be more for you here, but this story development (along with the cliche PI story) left me really cold.
So, could Ben Templesmith pick up the slack? Can he turn this sow’s ear into a silk purse? Well, the answer is “no.” There’s nothing wrong with Templesmith’s art, it’s just that his art always looks about like this and you can appreciate Templesmith’s art with much better stories like 30 Days of Night or Fell or even Choker. If you have experienced Templesmith’s unique stylings before and just want a refresher, go get one of those other stories. If you haven’t experienced Templesmith before, you definitely should because the first time you see Templesmith, it’s like being hit with 120 volts; the guy is just an electric and unique artist! The first time you see Templesmith art your head flips because he is very unique. The only other artist who similarly blew my mind the first time was Sam Kieth, and Kieth suffers from the same problem that his art always looks mostly the same. So just go reread his best work rather than reading his newest work.
If you haven’t experienced Templesmith, go read 30 Days of Night and enjoy his art with a better story.
Conclusion: Templesmith can’t save this derivative story. Unless you are super-into demonic possession and hard-boiled PIs, I can’t see much to recommend in this tale. I can appreciate people wanting a dose of Templesmith art in their life, but just go buy one of his other classics.
Grade: C
– Dean Stell
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Conclusion