Angelica doesn’t play nice with others … unless you pay her!
Creative Staff:
Writer: Pat Shand
Artwork: Renzo Rodriguez
Colors: Walter Baiamonte
Letters: Ryan Ferrier
What They Say:
In a when a family of Highborns ruled over Ancient Greece, Hades Blackstone – the God of the Underworld – fathered a child with a mortal woman. In an effort to keep his daughter, Angelica, safe from his enemies, Hades stayed out of her life … until she fell in love with a prince from a neighboring kingdom. A kingdom at war.
Hoping to save the immortal Angelica from a romance that would surely end in a tragedy, Hades sent the prince on a fool’s errand into the Underworld to slay a beast whose very blood offered those who drank it eternal life. Hades thought the monster would make quick work of the prince, but the prince triumphed and was infected by the beast’s blood. The prince became immortal, but he’d lost his soul in the process. He found Angelica … and he killed her.
Millennia later, Hades lived his life regretting these actions. In an attempt to set his heart at ease, his lover Liesel Van Helsing, teamed up with a witch named Marian Quin to resurrect Angelica Blackstone. The spell seemed to work, but Angelica was not brought back as the quiet daughter that Hades loved. Instead, she came back as a vampire.
This is the story of Angelica Blackstone, the Hellchild, as she tries to find new life in the city that never sleeps.
Content (please note that portions of review may contain spoilers):
The mysterious Jezebel Felina saved Angelica from a riotous night at the monster fight club, and now she wants the Hellchild to pay her a visit. Wary as to this cryptic invitation, the vampiric demigod responds with her attitude fully exposed and her fangs bared, not knowing if she can trust this red headed femme fatale. But with her pet hellhounds standing guard, the two women have a civilized conversation, or as much of one as her guest can stand. This enigmatic person is blunt and to the point, presenting her offer: she wants Angelica to murder someone. Hesitant to accept such a brash proposal, the daughter of Hades lashes out and tells her tentative employer in her own self-assured manner, that she knows nothing about her; from that opening, Jezebel unravels the entirety of her bloody history, unsettling the cocky girl.
Now that she has opened a chink in her visitor’s armor, they venture into the depths of the apartment, elaborating as to why she wants someone dead. While they wander through an extensive laboratory filled with reptiles, Jezebel discloses the secret of the room – lizards have always been used for both dark and light magic, but one obsessed man turned those vessels against mankind, Samuel Diamond. The fanatical worship of his serpent god caused him to create elixirs from their venom, and from those consumed draughts, a transformation fully warped both his mind and body. In his delusional state, he wandered the streets, determined to bring lesser beings the truth: they should worship his master and the old gods as the only true deities. However, as he proceeded in his gruesome crusade, the men in blue would not allow his reign to continue and brought him down. But his legacy was not over, for that corrupt spirit still remained, anticipating his release once again.
Angelica’s mission is to stop this ritual, but will this plea be enough to convince her? Or will a ridiculous monetary incentive be effective to enlighten her to this humanitarian endeavor?
In Summary:
Ever since we first saw her, Pat Shand has given us a Hellchild who is not afraid of showing the world that she does not back down from anyone. And this issue is no exception, however, will this cocky attitude work against the more sinister schemes that he has now introduced? While Shand does have a few laughable scenes within this brutality, my favorite being Angelica versus the hellhound, the deeper meaning of the story is beginning to unfold. Jezebel brought in a demigod to bring down an ambitious reptilian acolyte, but that berserker rage appears to working against them, unbeknownst to the party crashers. The fanatical zealousness of a madman, the gratuitous violence which they have unleashed and the end of his schemes, it all points to the end of the story, but is this truly the finale? Blood lust is the only way that she knows how to rage against the injustice that has perpetrated against her, but is there another outlet once she sees what that anger will forge this night? We can only hope … unless she wishes to be consumed by that emotion and hopelessly doomed to its unquenchable thirst.
Once again Renzo Rodriguez has given us a feast for the eyes and Walter Baiamonte’s masterful talent with the color spectrum has freed the fury that is Hellchild. From the first page, they give us the grittiness of New York: from the disgusting alleyways, a lavish uptown apartment and the foul stench of a madman’s lair, nothing is left to the imagination. This team unfolds the imagination of Shand and releases it unto an unsuspecting audience with their boundless skill. Every panel captures the story and feeds it to us gradually, without forgetting any detail to the lush expanse of an urban environment. I love how Rodriguez is able to give us an amused Angelica one moment and then someone who is ready to stare down a hellhound the next … and wins with a dimming of the eyes and a flash of fang. Baiamonte’s palette further invokes the darkness of this story all by a simple display of over all tones, each able to bring about a different attitude via a change of the atmospheric color. But all of this was in preparation for the main feast of bloody goodness; if you thought the last issue was intense, it had nothing on this one! The build up toward the assault, the gentle streams of crimson and then that outstanding splash of Angelica feasting. Throats torn out, flesh rend from muscle, exploding faces and a Fatality scene ripped from Mortal Kombat. If it’s this demanding with only the second issue, how much better can it get?
The blood keeps flowing, Angelica’s rage grows ever more intense and the end of the villain all this soon? However, even within madness there is a tinge of sanity and from it there that are hatched the most ambitious ploys. Seems like even a Hellchild has her price, but has Angelica unleashed something which even she may come to fear? I cannot wait for the next issue … as something wicked simmers within the streets of New York.
Grade: A+
Rating: T (Teen)
Released By: Zenescope
Release Date: December 07, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
