Satan’s real power in this story is choosing incompetent enemies.
Creative Staff:
Story: Joshua Hale Fialkov
Art: Matt Triano
Colors: Mark Roberts
Letters: Simon Bowland
What They Say:
As the team regroups, Chun-Bai suspects her team is not what it seems, and her suspicions might just get them killed. An unlikely force appears to save them, but will it damn them as well?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Satan abdicated his throne and Hell has loosed itself on the world. The Devilers, a team of the most powerful exorcists on the planet, recover in an abandoned house, trying to discern a pattern to the demonic attacks and form a plan of action. However, one of their members, Samir Patel, is actually the devil in disguise. Rabbi Brenda Davide suspects, and voices her fear to Chun-bai, but seeking the girl’s help may only make the situation worse.
As was the case with the previous four issues, number five divides its focus between the events occurring now and the backstory of one of the Devilers. This time it’s Chun-bai. We learn that she was held prisoner in a Tibetan monestary because of her power, and was feared throughout the region as the “Destroyer.” We also learn that there was an exorcist six thousand years ago with similar abilities who caused the great flood in order to rid the world of a demon invasion. Chun-bai waffles between accepting her fate and fearing it, but it’s too much characterization at once, making it feel like forced exposition instead of a natural progression to the story.
The same could be said for Samir/the Devil. We discovered in the last issue that the Devil possessed Samir some time ago and in this issue he reveals himself to the rest of the Devilers. It’s a pretty roughshod character arc given that Samir barely was a character in the first three issues. The story force feeds the twist and then almost as quickly shucks it. As near as I can tell, it serves no story purpose whatsoever and just feels contrived.
Indeed, that feels like the problem at the heart of this series: everything feels forced and contrived. The story decisions just don’t work and the entire comic feels aimless. Partially this is due to a lack of a clear viewpoint character. There is no clear protagonist to this entire work. In one issue it’s Brian, in another Rabbi Brenda, and in this one it’s Chun-bai. The comic does this to flesh out the characters, but the problem lies in that it stretches itself too thin. Jumping viewpoints like this just serves to dilute the story and unmoor the reader. It also compresses information to the point where each issue works more as an info dump than a natural progression in the story. While I do like the premise and the multinational cast, The Devilers consistently fails to come together into a cohesive narrative.
In Summary:
The Devilers suffers from a lack of focus, and each issue makes it worse. The idea is interesting, and the art is strong, but the story is aimless and more often than not contrived. As always, I hope that the next issue will be better, but I’ll be glad when the series ends. Not recommended.
Grade: C-
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: December 24th, 2014
MSRP: $2.99
