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Devil
May Cry #1
Book One: Evil Woman
1/FEB/2004
Publisher: Dreamwave Productions
Writer: Brad Mick
Pencils: Pat Lee
Colors: Linda Bergkvist & Thierry Diozon
Letters: Benjamin Lee
Price: $3.95 US/R44.00 SA
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Devil May Cry [DMC] is my first look into the world
of comics based on popular computer games that Dreamwave
Productions and Capcom have begun to release over the past
few months. After seeing some of the excellent preview art on this
book I was very keen to see how the final product came out.
Dante is an otherworldly mercenary who would rather pick a fight
with supernatural bad guys than earthly ones. Armed to the teeth
with his twin handguns, aptly named Ebony and Ivory after there
differing colors, and his monstrous long sword, it seems nothing
can stand in his way. Then a strange woman appears and for once
Dante is floored.
Based on the computer game counterpart of the same name,
DMC is a story based around a strong but essentially flawed central
character that is filled to the brim with wisecracks and is near
invincible in a fight. This would have worked nicely in a game format
but unfortunately it doesn’t transfer as well to the world
of comics. The abysmal dialogue written by Brad
Mick [Transformers G1] doesn’t improve
the situation either. The narrative voice throughout the book helps
to introduce Dante and set up a nice scene or two, but the dialogue
shreds to pieces any good start the narration had gotten going.
The title of the book is Devil May Cry, the first few pages are
based on a fight between two demons, Dante only fights supernatural
forces and yet Mick has to have the characters mention the word
‘hell’ every time they open their mouths, as if we didn’t
already catch a ‘subtle’ [intended sarcasm] theme. I
think I counted about six wisecracks along the lines of: ‘What
the Hell?’ were used in the first six pages, you get the idea.
It’s a shame that such deliberately campy and unimaginative
dialogue ruined an otherwise ok storyline. Look, this was never
going to be Watchmen 2 or anything but it could have been a fun
and entertaining comic nevertheless. Unfortunately Mick cut’s
its chances off at the knees with some bad writing and horrific
dialogue choices.
Onto the main reason for giving this book a look, the art by
Pat Lee [Superman/Batman, Transformers]
and Linda Bergkvist & Thierry Diozon. The reason
why I mention the last two names along with Lee is that they are
responsible for the colors/digital painting on the book, which give
it an excellent artistic feel. A mixture of digital painting
and penciling leave DMC with a superior visual element to bring
it to life. Lee draws Dante flying around at every conceivable
angle and does a great job of bringing across the videogame action
style to the comic page. His gothic backdrops and choice in architecture
are also brilliantly done and help to bring an outstanding atmosphere
and presence of ‘evil’ to the story.
A disappointing read due to a badly written story
with overdone campy dialogue. The art is great however due to a
style which suits the story and characters remarkably well.
Score 5/10
Reviewed By:Iain Duncan
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Comic Reviews
