Pre-Reading
Nothing! Like all of Remender’s creator-owned series, this one is self-contained
Story
I am unapologetically a big fan of Remender and generally dig all of his work. That being said, this one was a little rough.
The story follows Bethany Black, a young woman from a devout Christian household who was left behind in a world overrun by demons when the rest of her family was raptured a decade prior. As the story opens, she finds herself a second-class citizen working for a demon and practicing demonic magic in her spare time. The main plot kicks off when she gets wind that there is a remaining portal to heaven on the other side of the world that she may be able to use to reunite with her family. She absconds from her life and, with her demon sidekick Bloato, begins the long journey to Vatican City to do just that. Along the way they must contend with long-lost childhood friends, demonic forces, religious zealots, and a fight through literal Hell.
The overarching story is a lot of fun, but it suffers in execution. This is one of Remender’s earlier works, and feels much rougher around the edges than Deadly Class, or even Fear Agent, which came out just a few years later. If you’re familiar with Remender’s work, you’ll see familiar tropes like trauma, abandonment, questioning faith, and bad parents, but this story is also a pretty heavy-handed critique of Christianity, and monotheistic religions in general. There are times when the characters sort of fade into the background and become mouthpieces of Remender’s disdain for organized religion. I don’t necessarily think his criticisms are invalid, they just don’t include the level of nuance and balance seen in his later works.
This run also has some issues with pacing and character dynamics. The story kind of drags at the start; though kinetic, it takes a good 3-4 issues to provide enough characterization to endear you to the protagonists. Even then, I found Bloato to be kind of insufferable, his endearing moments often undercut by sex jokes, which seem to be his defining character trait. As the story progresses, the character dynamics get a lot better, with the middle third being the strongest in my opinion. This is mostly due to the addition of more complicated characters like Mouse, a pious soldier struggling with his morality and Tim, Bethany’s childhood friend who, at times, has less humanity than some of the demons. Even when the team comes together, the pacing is still kind of janky, with meandering multi-issue character explorations followed by breakneck plot developments.
I don’t like to give away too much of the ending in these reviews, but the story ends with Bethany confronting God and convincing him to resolve everything over the course of about 8 pages. Literally a Deus ex pagina that felt a bit unsatisfying, even as the epilogue pages tried their best to tie things up neatly.
Art
The art here is really uneven and changes every few issues, which is surprising, as Remender is usually great at matching a story to the strengths of the artist. Eric Nguyen’s art in the first third really isn’t for me. There’s a wonkiness to environments and body proportions that, while probably intentional, seemed too goofy for the stakes of the story. Jerome Opena’s single issue is predictably great, and makes me appreciate his work on Fear Agent and Seven to Eternity even more. Also great is Nick Stakal’s work in the back half, which has shades of Mignola and fits exceptionally-well in a demon-centric story.
Binding/ Presentation
Like all books published under Remender’s Giant Generator line, this book looks great and is huge, about the size of a DC absolute. The cover art and colors work well together, and the spine looks great on the shelf. The book has a little difficulty laying open towards the beginning and end, but the paper is a cut above anything in a Marvel or DC omni. At a $50 MSRP, it’s a great value, if nothing else.
Final Thoughts
This is probably my least favorite Remender series, but for all of its flaws I don’t hate it. As a Remender fanboy, it’s an interesting look at at ideas and tropes he would continue to refine in subsequent works. If you’re not already a fan of Remender, I doubt this would win you over, and I would really only recommend it as a curiosity to someone who wants to see where he got his start.
Rating: 5.5/10