Purgatori Must Die! #1 // Review
She’s had her head blown off. She’s okay with it, though. Really. Isn’t even all that upset about it or anything. It grows back. She’s got a holographic intelligence. She’s a vampire who has tasted the power of thousands. Now she has the power to drain gods. They’ve noticed. Now they’re banding together to get rid of her in Purgatori Must Die! #1. Writer Ray Fawkes opens a tale of a cosmic-level vampire that is conjured to the page by Madrid-based artist Álvaro Sarraseca. Brazillian Salvatore Aiala handles the colors. It’s a bit of a slog to get through all of the establishing plot, but the idea at the heart of the series seems interesting enough.
Purgatori the mega-vampire is lounging around with a mortal. She’s gained a lot of power and earned herself a bit of vacation in and amidst a scattered pile of corpses that serve as her snacks. Mercury has just left a meeting of the gods, who have all more or less unanimously decided that they will need to work together to kill her. Mercury takes the opportunity to contact a whole lot of mystical warriors from the Dynamite Comics universe to do the job.
Vampirella. Evil Ernie. Lady Hel. Fawkes has a lot of pieces to put into play in the first issue. All the while, Purgatori has to take some time establishing her backstory. It’s a lot to cover. Fawkes isn’t exactly giving the establishing issue a very nuanced or intricate opening. That being said, the first chapter is not without its moments. Purgatori is lost in a flashback right after a group of warriors breaks in on her to try to kill her. The backstory is established to reveal Purgatori’s mortal ally barely survived the attack before neutralizing the threat. And Purgatori was simply too powerful to care. It’s a clever moment in an issue that feels pretty weak otherwise.
Sarraseca and Aiala give the title character a radiant darkness that serves her well at the center of the conflict. Outside of her beauty, the visuals are largely hit-or-miss. The meeting between the gods feels pretty silly when it should resonate with menace and power. The action explodes off the page only very occasionally. There ARE some moody shots that pepper the narrative here and there. Some of it’s almost electrifying in places. The moment when Purgatori loses her head is quite striking. With the establishing backstory now fully complete, the visuals of the series have a real shot at amping up in the months to come.
Fawkes does a pretty good job of establishing a new series that could theoretically draw in new readers who might not be familiar with Dynamite’s family of supernatural horror comics. The first issue is a fairly respectable introduction to quite a few different characters. Fawkes will have to work at developing the plot. With so many different characters in play, the series runs the risk of simply directing the flow of traffic as the line of assassins forms and everybody waits for their chance at the target.
