Cutting Edge: The Devil's Mirror #1

Cutting Edge: The Devil’s Mirror #1

Titan Comics 2021

Written by Francesco Dimitri

Illustrated by Mario Alberti

Translated by Mark Bourbon Cook

Lettered by Jessica Burton

The Dodecathlon continues, but time is running out! The team’s last hope is a lost artifact known only as The Devil’s Mirror! Brought together by a clandestine corporation, the world’s greatest scientists, artists, and entrepreneurs must unite to solve a mystery of epic proportions! But as the conspiracy is unveiled, how many will survive…?

This is an oversized book and I couldn’t be any more thankful for that! I know this is based off a video game but honestly since I don’t play any this is completely a stand alone story that you can read and enjoy without any prior knowledge of the game. I love a new reader friendly series that ties into an existing franchise and if you haven’t read the issue leading up to this one that’s okay too though I highly recommend that you find it and read it as well. I mean this is so well written and has all these incredible nuances to the way it’s being told that you really need to pay attention to what you are both reading and seeing on the page. This is as intellectual as it is just damn fine storytelling and the two together plus all the other aspects of it well this is why you love comic books.

I am in love with the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is perfectly presented. Just the ease in which we see the characters going through the pages and revealing the story to us thanks to how this is structured and how we see the layers within the story bringing this all to life is some of the best storytelling you’ll ever see. The character development is phenomenal and as we see the dialogue and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter fleshing them them out even further. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists & turns along the way we are treated to one hell of an interesting journey being taken. Plus seeing how everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow really is pretty amazing to witness.

If you aren’t all that familiar with Titan Comics, then shame on you, then you don’t know what kind of talent you will see in the interiors. These interiors are mindbogglingly stunningly gorgeous and the talent and skill that it takes to create this level and quality of work is a fanboy or fangirl’s dream come true. How we see the composition within the panels and how the backgrounds are utilised is beyond amazing. Not only doe they enhance the moments but they bring us depth perception, a sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. Plus there are moments that you need to see to believe and trust me when I say you’ll wish you’d see in every book. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masters eye for storytelling. The colour work that we see is divine. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is extraordinary.

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One of the things that impresses me the most aside from the unbelievable level and quality of storytelling is how Titan Comics manages to find these and bring them to a much wider audience. I wish I could read this in its original language and get all the subtlety and nuances form that outside of a translation. This is what I want to see every single time I open up a comic book.