The Fellowship was fortunate enough to obtain a copy of DANTE #1 from Image Comics and Top Cow Comics. Matt Hawkins and Jason Ning write, Darick
Robertson draws, Diego Rodriguez colors, and Simon Bowland letters.
Dante is a contract killer, and a damn good one. But he’s
got a family now, and he wants out of the business. He tells his handler this, and
agrees to do one last hit with his “replacement” in tow. The hit goes south,
and a little kid gets hit in the crossfire. Kid’s grandma curses him, and now
Dante wakes up completely covered in tattoos. Which can’t be removed. He finds
Grandma who tells him that he must atone for his transgressions.
This is a huge first issue, which is really helpful for letting
us get to know Dante. And there’s a ton of cool backstory here, too, as well as
Dante actually figuring out one of the tats. The art does a really nice job of
handling all of the violence, with fast-paced fight scenes (not oodles of gore)
and great emotional range. We get a great feel for the character and the dark
world he works in.
He's got a long way to go to redemption, and to getting his
family back. This reads like the pilot of an exciting TV series (just saying).
Definitely a picker-upper.
~Mike ( @MikeyGeek )
