Devilers #1
Fialkov, Triano
SPOILER ALERT!
I will most certainly be SPOILING!
Devilers is a concept so viscerally perfect that I am amazed that it hasn’t happened until now. Exorcists of every faith coming together to take on the most dangerous and powerful demons and possessions seems so easy and elegant, but apart from Cliver Barker’s The Harrowers I have never heard of anything like it. The story opens up on tails of demonic possession that have been debunked. Debunked and recited by none other than the series main character Father Malcolm himself. Father Malcolm is one of the priests you come into contact with these days who is both a skeptic and a true believer and the two don’t ever seem to touch in his mind.
His origin story is as a boy, who having just been hit by a car, saw a demon feeding on the driver. When the demon approached him, he was called pure, was healed, and the demon vanished. He is left marked, which makes me wonder what exactly about him is pure. Also, he speaks to the fact that the demon healed him, apparently judging him, which gives him a different picture of the creatures.
While Father Malcolm is discussing all of this with a man in a bar, the television above them is reporting on an apparent disaster at the Vatican. The city is largely in ruin. Malcolm uses this as a discussion point, until a Cardinal, Cardinal David Reed to be exact, with his robes on fire, bursts into the room. He is in near hysterics, but his main theme seems to be, “We warned you, and now you’re drafted. Let’s go.”
The Vatican disaster is, surprise surprise, at the hands of demons. We are given a taste of how dangerous even one demon can be, as it wipes out a squad of Italian Special forces in only a few moments.
Back at the bar, the Cardinal leads both Malcolm and his companion outside into the alley, and Malcolm touches his skeptic friend, allowing him to see what he sees. There is a large Sasquatchy demon standing there next to the Cardinal. The skeptic gets a backhand, but ultimately, they all travel to the Vatican as the Cardinal wants, using the demon’s teleportation.
Apparently, the Devil has breached into the world with some diplomatic trickery, and demons are walking free. Humans are not losing it mostly because they cannot see them. It is while watching this procession of infernal entities that the Cardinal introduces the rest of the team. Rabbit Davide can see evil, is good at analyzing patterns and, surprisingly, is a fully trained Mossad, Israeli special forces agent. Samar Patel is a con man who has a kind of mind control working along side a Muslim demonologist who apparently controls one of his own. Finally, an Asian who can control nature, Chun-Bai, rounds out the group.
The group marches onward, and settle on a plan of marching right up to the portal that is allowing demons to flow through, and closing it. As the group finds the portal, and are viewing even more dangerous demons through it, Malcolm asks their only un-powered companion a simple question.
“…You still want to go first?”
This book has everything going for it, from beautiful artwork, to a universal theme, to a story that looms mysterious and complex just outside of the pages we’ve been given. I think the addition of the character that is just along for the ride, Mr. Lieb as the agnostic voice on the team is a dash of genius. I look forward to learning about the Devil and his treaty, and the myriad of demons that have found their way onto Earth. Also, I want more Rude Demon Frog.
My rating: 4 / 5
sounds like it’s definitely worth checking out.
Holy hell!