Butterflies, teddy bears, and kittens, oh my!
Creative Staff:
Story: Andrew Constant
Art: Brad Walker, Andrew Hennessy
Colors: Chris Sotomayor
Letterer: Tom Napolitano
What They Say:
As Etrigan and Jason Blood adapt to their new forms in the hell zone engulfing Death Valley, they find themselves in the presence of a seemingly psychic child, otherwise unaffected by the nuclear hell blast. But before they can address the mystery of this child, they must fight their way to an old companion, Madame Xanadu, who is trapped in a roadside hotel of hell. As hell continues to spew into Earth, Blood must try and contain an unhinged Etrigan, capable of harming everyone around them, including his companions.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening installment of this miniseries was one that worked pretty well for me in giving me the reconnect I needed with a pair of characters that I enjoy. There’s something about them that keeps them from feeling like a part of everything else, from costume to concept, and that’s an element to the supernatural side of DC Comics overall that I’m always intrigued by. Andrew Constant brought it to life well while setting up the larger storyline and I’m totally digging Brad Walker and Andrew Hennessy’s approach to the characters and giving us some bleak landscapes to partake in. It doesn’t hurt that Sotomayor is handling the color design as that’s really critical here with a book focused on flames.
There were a lot of moving pieces to the first issue beyond just the setup and putting us into the aftermath of the event in this issue means a lot of confusion. I really like seeing how Jason and Etrigan deal with each other because they do have a lengthy history with each other. There’s some great push and pull between them and the further cementing that Jason has become more like Etrigan in some ways and has no problem admitting it now. With the positions reversed here and Etrigan unable to do any damage to the form Jason has, it’s interesting to see Etrigan view this incarnation of Death Valley as close to home in many ways and savoring it while Jason wants to get to the bottom of what happened. Particularly when they come across the little girl from the first issue that survived the event and isn’t sure of what’s going on.
What she does know is the name and where to find Madame Xanadu, which leads to a wonderful little moment for me that ties to the lengthy history that have with a mention of Demon Knights. Though Etrigan wants to kill the girl simply because that’s his nature, I loved seeing how Jason has figured out how to control him with promises of talking about kind things forever, a form of torture for the demon. What Etrigan gets in return is a chance to cut loose upon discovering a range of other opponents to deal with, tying in with the investigation from the outside that we see at the beginning, as more of hell is coming upward and into the landscape. The story itself hasn’t really fully formed at the moment as there’s no singular larger villain to land on, but watching as the two become three and then four with Xanadu and her being caught up in all of this is definitely exciting to watch.
In Summary:
The Demon: Hell is Earth is definitely delighting in its second installment across the board. The creative team is firing on all cylinders and giving it a chance to grow and breathe right without rushing into things. This installment keeps things a bit more focused on our core group without other distractions for the most part and that leads Jason and Etrigan come across as more defined before bringing in the little girl more prominently as well as Xanadu. It’s a great looking book and I’m excited to see what’s next to see it build into something bigger that as a whole could be a really strong work.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 27th, 2017
MSRP: $2.99
