Brimstone and the Borderhounds #1by Wolfen MoondaughterReviews may contain information that could be considered 'spoilers'. Readers should proceed at their own risk. Publisher
Credits Grade: 7 It turns out that life as we know it is just a means to sort souls into various realms of the so-called afterlife, to be used as expendable slave labour. As commodities, souls are stolen and sold on a black market, and of course the realms try to influence our eventual placement while we're still living. The realms also need what essentially amounts to bounty hunters to round up souls that are stolen or escape. Brimstone is unique, as a half-human, half demon man from Hell. His hybrid heritage allows him to travel back and forth between Earth and Hell easily, making him both sought out and reviled. He works with two humans, Dawg and his tough-yet-flamboyantly gay (or bi?) brother Luscious. We don't actually meet the trio until the end of the issue, though, this installment instead focusing on one damned soul, of Jack Dursey, a wolf of Wall Street, as well as on a serial killer, and on police detective Altar, who is investigating Jack's family's deaths.The art is decent. There's a fair amount of blood but not a lot of actual gore (though dead children in a couple scenes may be upsetting). Despite the late introduction of the leads, and the focus on what amounts to an unlikable soul, it's an engaging issue with interesting characters. I appreciate that there's some diversity to the cast, with the detective being Muslim and the Borderhounds being Latino, and with (at least) one of the brothers being gay. (Dawg refers to Jack as "pretty," so he might be too, I'm not sure. Also, hopefully there will be a few non-victim women added in later issues.) I can't really make a judgement on the leads yet, other than that they're amusing (and blond and bearded Brimstone makes me think "Thor"), but I'm definitely curious to see where this goes! Written: April 19, 2015
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