Comics
Review: “The Devilers” #1
Amidst a demonic attack upon the Vatican, an unorthodox priest is folded into a group of inter-continental demon hunters and asked to the front line of the war against hell itself. This mini-series explodes out of the gate with occult awesomeness and doesn’t slow down, at times to the detriment of its own story telling. Ultimately, “Devilers #1” fills the need for the kind of book you didn’t realize your stack was missing.
WRITTEN BY: Joshua Hale Fialkov
ART BY: Matt Triano
PUBLISHER: Dynamite
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASE: July 16, 2014
Reviewed By: Epic Switzer
Father Malcolm O’Rourke, is a hard-drinking, double-talking, wise ass mother fucker. He is a convention of the genre as much as fire and brimstone, but that isn’t to say he’s necessarily a flat character. There is enough hinted at about his past as he is rushed into battle to lead me to wonder if this Father Mal may be a new take on the hard edge demon fighter, which is something I’m very much looking forward to discovering.
Speaking of rushed in, my big problem with this book is how quickly characters and conflicts are established. Its something I pick up on most commonly with mini-series’, and though it isn’t an especially complex premise, our team of multi-faith, “Super Best Friends”-ish demonologists are introduced and thrust into battle in less than 6 pages. It is certainly too soon to tell, but I hope this book doesn’t forsake characters and relationships for spectacle.
As a spectacle, however, “The Devilers” depicts the most twisted fucked up demons Fialkov and Triano could imagine. New 52 “Animal Man” seems to be a reference for the grotesque creatures here but there is also an interesting focus on animal-demon hybrid creatures. There is an especially haunting hippo-tarantula hybrid (don’t try to picture it), a frog with human hands flipping the bird, and even a friendly (second South Park reference) ManBearPig. I’m really digging the imaginative hellspawn.
This book has got all the ingredients for a delicious Satan Gumbo, I’m just not yet sure if the ratios are right for it to earn a spot in my stack. It certainly is unique enough to stand out as one of those books I didn’t know I needed, but I also found myself doubling back on more than one occasion for dialogue that didn’t quite make sense or flow and when it was over I wish it had taken a little more time to build up to the big battle. It’s really too soon to tell where things are going, but I certainly can’t wait to find out.
Epic Switzer AKA Eric is an aspiring filmmaker and screenplay writer living in Los Angeles. His work tends to focus on the lighter side of entropy, dystopic futures, and man’s innate struggle with his own mortality. He can be found on twitter @epicswitzer or reached via email at ericswitzerfilm@gmail.com.
IDW Dark and Paramount recently joined forces to launch limited comic book tales set in the worlds of Smile and A Quiet Place, and we’ve learned today that they’ll continue hanging around in those franchise universes with two brand new limited series tales.
Entertainment Weekly has exclusively revealed this afternoon that IDW Dark’s Any Given Smile debuts in September, while A Quiet Place: Rising Tides arrives in November.
First up, from writer Stephanie Williams and artist Pablo Collar, Any Given Smile puts a football-themed twist on Parker Finn’s successful Smile movie franchise.
The five-part limited series is “set in January 1995, during the American Arena League football championship game in St. Augustine, Florida. The rising superstar of the Sharks, backup quarterback Dupree, is feeling the pressure from his teammates, the fans, and also the city’s gambling underworld, to whom he owes a considerable debt. Meanwhile, a sports journalist investigates a string of suicides that may be connected to the big game. At the very least, they are connected to a sinister entity that preys on the minds of its victims.”
From writer Declan Shalvey and artist Luke Sparrow, A Quiet Place: Rising Tides will also be a five-issue limited story. The comic book tale “brings the creatures to the Florida Keys, where a father-daughter duo attempt to survive on water in a houseboat.”
EW further details, “This tense family reunion coincides with the arrival of the vicious creatures that hunt through sound. Grace and her dad find safety on the open ocean, but she’ll have to make landfall sooner or later; the father’s oxygen tank and their supplies are running low, while a hurricane swiftly approaches.”
Learn more about both comic books over on Entertainment Weekly.
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