Devil's Dominion #3

Devil’s Dominion #3

Blackbox Comics 2020

Written by Brian Hawkins

Pencilled by Raffaele Forte

Inked by Sara Ianniello

Coloured by Carolina Pontes

Lettered by Justin Birch

Devlynn barely escapes the clutches of the demon succubus. Her battle forces her to relive some of the horrors of her past and the deal that she made with the Devil. Meanwhile, another Horseman sets his sights on the demon hunter.

I have to say Brian hits us with some heavy stuff in this issue. We get to see Devlynn’s backstory and why she allowed the devil into her life to begin with and boy howdy is it a doozy of a reason indeed. Still it is also why she’s so strong right now and is able to control the demon inside her, she’s been able to harness that shame, anger and everything else that comes with it and focus, or she’s just locked it all away. Either way that is going to take some great mental strength and we’re seeing the results. Brian is writing something both incredibly alluring, as in it appeals to the reader, and astonishingly deep and as a result the reader becomes engaged and invested in Devlynns life and feel, FEEL for her!

I am loving 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 presented extremely well. So this Horseman, whom I am entirely sure who it is, sees something in her that we are starting to see more clearly and I love what he does as a result. Then being tired, dazed and confused allows her to be an easy target for someone else. The character development is interesting and I am enjoying seeing how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story and makes you forget about the outside world.

I am liking how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge and others just grow stronger while others just simply surprise you by the odd coincidence timing, and mind there are no such thing as coincidences. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is stupendous work.

Oh how the interiors here are interesting to see. The linework is fabulous and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail work we see is amazingly well rendered. I mean the creativity and imagination that is on display here is scarey good. How we see the composition within the panels that works with and sometimes negates the need for backgrounds is impressive. That we still see this fantastic depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope in the story is stunning. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a very talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is gorgeous! How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows some really nice skill and talent.

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What an utterly surprisingly delightful story this keeps evolving into. It starts out one way and then when the layers are added it begins to morph and change as it grows. This is some exceptional writing and characterisation that is wrapped up in some absolutely amazing interiors that definitely make this an adult read. This is why Brian is emerging as a great force in the industry as more and more of his work comes out.