When you’re looking for answers … make sure that you watch your back!
Creative Staff:
Writer: Ralph Tedesco
Artwork: Antonio Bifulco
Inks: Jacob Bear & Alex Rivera
What They Say:
After being given a second chance at life by Lucifer, Mercy Dante is tasked with hunting down demons who’ve escaped from hell and sending them back to where they belong. As Mercy continues to acclimate to a life with no chance of salvation, she finds herself inclined to help an innocent woman in heed of her particular set of skills. Meanwhile, a man who feeds on the weaknesses of others stalks his latest victim and little does Mercy know, she’s on a collision course with an evil more powerful than she’s ever faced.
Content (please note that portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As if things weren’t going well enough for Mercy, the last mission was a disaster when she tried to find out more information on the underworld figure named Raum, but now with the death of Brad, everything takes a turn for the worse. However, when she returns to the office, she learns that Virgil and Lucifer, in turn, have been holding back information – Mercy is not the only bounty hunter in the employ of her mistress. How can she get anything done if someone else is stumbling around in the background, trying to dig up the same dirt on her objective? The job is difficult enough as it is without some guy thinking he knows everything and getting in the way. What else can go wrong?
And as if to answer that question, the same shadowy figure Mercy has been investigating decides to pursue his own venture into persuading her to stop the meddling. But she is not the target of his vendetta, rather someone close to her heart. Does he think that this will deter her encroachment? Then Raum has not know his prey as well he thinks, for they will not succumb to his influence as easily as his past encounters. However, when he does manage to capture them, the battle of wits has just begun, and the winner will not the one which he thinks. Only when one has abandoned his own pride can one hope to grasp victory from the jaws of defeat. But will the cost be worth the price of triumph?
In Summary:
Ralph Tedesco continues Mercy’s introspection within this story and while it may enlighten us to the guilt she feels from her past deeds, it also bogs down the action theme which was established in the first issue and the previous incarnations from past series. I can understand him wanting to refresh us on her background and the shame which brought her and others into the same position, but to stretch it out over two books seems a bit much. Mercy is a bounty hunter and when we hear those two words, we think of hunting down dangerous criminals, not psychoanalyzing how they ended up in Inferno and how they want to release themselves from that place. True that the title itself is about redemption, but how did it end up Mercy regretting her own past instead of grasping the reins and charging forward; after all, this whole adventure began when Mercy wanted to exchange her sister Grace’s soul in the depths for her own. So, now that Tedesco has introduced this underlying remorse for her actions, does she also think that the bargain for her sibling was also a bad choice? Of course not, but it still shakes her own resolve for her past deeds.
Since this same theme has continued from the last issue, the artistic panache which Antonio Bifulco established in the first book still feels like it is being repressed. Anyone who is familiar with his previous work knows that his style is very dynamic, his action oriented panels move the narrative along at a dizzying pace which doesn’t allow the reader to catch their breath until the very end and then wonders what happened between the first and last page; however, this time, the dramatic pacing that Tedesco is using brings his work to a crawl, which is a shame. Although the amazing attention to detail in his work is embellished by the inking of Jacob Bear and Alex Rivera, something still seems missing. Hopefully, the cliffhanger which we are left with will pick up the tension and thus add to the action in the next book.
Tedesco & Bifulco’s tale of woe has reached the mid-point and now that Raum has noticed someone’s pursuit of his endeavors, hopefully, the pacing of the story will pick up. The need of Mercy wanting to help others is in her nature, but the failing of wanting to save everyone and thus causing her to question her own motives is what drags down the narrative into a moralizing drama instead of a daring adventure. With only two more issues to go, the story can only get better, right?
Grade: B
Rating: M (Mature)
Released By: Zenescope
Release Date: May 18th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99