Review: Purgatori #5

Purgatori05-Cov-A-RuffinoThus far this series has had its share of ups and downs, despite being only four issues into the series.  At times there has been little to distinguish this series from any number of other low production supernatural horrors on the comic shelves, as the main character has been a bit flat in her presentation, and her settings have been a bit too generic to really care that much about what will happen to her.  As much can be said about this series at least until this issue, as finally the character seems to be getting a more focus on who she is as opposed to what was before.

The story follows Purgatori as she has returned to the underworld, keen on revenge, but also still not fully whole in her own self, still lacking her powers.  While previous issue have attempted to establish some tension or supposition that things will not work out for her, this issue throws that aside and finally gives her a chance to cut loose.  This issue is far more about action than it is about character development, but strangely more of the character comes out in this way.  After she finishes with her enemies, the anti-hero comes out in how she treats them afterwards.

This comic is by no means a masterpiece, by at the very least it has finally captured something about the character which has been missing thus far.  An attempt to build an Indiana Jones style arcane story for her return to Hell was met with a lot of false starts, but once she got back on home turf she finally made a stand, both in the story and out.  If the writers can continue to capture the same gritty and sassy nature of the character, there might be a chance to make this work as an ongoing, but so far their record is about one out of five issues for having done so, so while this might leave the character pointing in the right direction, it took a long and twisted route to get there.

Story: Aaron Gillespie Art: Javier Garcia-Miranda
Story: 8.5 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.5 Recommendation: Buy

Dynamite provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review.