by Peter J. Tomasi (Author), Peter Snejbjerg
(Illustrator)
Publisher: Dark
Horse Books (April 1, 2014)
Softcover, 224
pages
Set during WW II,
a group of soldiers is recruited by a dying archangel to defend a monastery who
is under attack by a rogue group to steal the light of God which is burning
eternally from the remnants of the true cross on which Jesus Christ was
crucified. The tale uses quite a few obscure Christian tales from apocrypha and
the Bible. Marcus Longinus, the centurion who caused the final wound of Christ
on the cross, makes an appearance. The Grigori, angels who were cast from
heaven for sleeping with human women, are the antagonists, while the Nephilim,
the off-spring of angels and humans are their foot soldiers. All of this
material is gone into detail and this backstory provides much-needed depth and
suspense to the supernatural aspects of this story and acts as a cohesive bond
to the plot.
The
book is well paced and action oriented. You get to know the characters, their
hopes and dreams, and ultimately their final fates. This is not a graphic novel
which plays favorites. Unlike some writers, who have difficulty letting go of
their creations. No so here, there is no pulling punches, no spared bullet. The
novel is a suspenseful death fight right up until the very end - even though
you kind of know who is going to survive.
A
lot of credit has to be placed on the artist for the success of this book, but
also with the colorist. As much of the material takes place at night, the
colorist gave that effect, yet did not diminish our understanding of what was
happening. There was a point when the Nephilim first appear, we see the brigade
engage them, and it was difficult to see who survived and who died. The
material didn’t make it quite clear on which characters survived, and ones I
had thought died turned up again. Should’ve taken a page from Joe Kubert who
was a master of differentiating soldiers in combat.
For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.
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