Devil's Reign #1

Devil’s Reign #1.

Marvel Comics 2021

Written by Chip Zdarsky

Illustrated by Marco Checchetto

Coloured by Marcio Menyz

Lettered by Clayton Cowles

The story that’s been building for years is here! Wilson Fisk went from Kingpin to mayor of the biggest city in America and is going to bring his full criminal and political power to bear on the super heroes who call NYC home. The man who once destroyed Daredevil has set his sights on The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Captain America, Spider-Man, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and more. And since it’s Fisk, once he takes them all down, you know he’s going to sign it. CROSSBONES! TASKMASTER! TYPHOID MARY! SHOCKER! WHIPLASH! RHINO! KRAVEN! Fisk has an ARMY of super villains at his command – and this is just his opening salvo. For years, Fisk has waited for his time to strike, and YOU WON’T BELIEVE the aces he’s got up his sleeves!

Well the good, bad & the ugly of it all is that it feels like every so often Marvel tries to reenact the Civil War in some way. Last time the targets were kids and now Fisk targets any hero operating or living in New York City all because he’s feeling a bit butt-hurt by actions that were out of his control, namely all the work he did on Daredevil’s secret identity being turned into gibberish. This along with the other part of the opening where Fisk’s political life is at stake giving the book an out should it need it.

It’s a good thing I like Chip and his writing because the man is talented as all get out. The story & plot development we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information are presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a marvellous job with their personalities. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story we begin to see just how big this story is going to be.

I am pretty impressed with the way we see this being structured and how the layers within the story begin to emerge and grow. I am also liking the way that we see the layers opening up new avenues to be explored. What these avenues do is add some great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward are impeccably handled.

I am very much enjoying the interiors here. The linework is fantastic as it’s clean, crisp and strong while the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail we see within the work is extraordinary. We do see some nice use of backgrounds though I'd like to see more but they do enhance and expand the moments as well as work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show an extraordinary eye for how colour works.

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I’m a sucker for a blank cover and that’s why I picked this one up. As it turns out the story is a bit predictable at the moment but the potential we see is out there. Without heroes versus heroes and instead a gangster mayor in an election year stunt whose feelings are hurt that he’s not fully in control and uses the super-villains and as his own personal army is something exciting to see taking shape. Also while I don’t know if this will bleed into the line of books Marvel has, here’s hoping this self contained to these six issues. Chip’s got some strong interesting writing happening and the characterisation is strong and familiar while the interiors really manage to capture the power and emotions that the characters possess.