Of the two Chaos imprint releases so far for Dynamite, Lady Demon was met with the lesser fanfare than Purgatori.  The character was a lesser known one going back to the Bad Girl era of the 1990s, but as Purgatori stumbled into its release, Lady Demon has provided a tight story throughout.  There are a couple of reasons for that, but they mostly come down to one commonality, a more focused story line.  Thus while Purgatori was all over Earth and into Hell to tell her story, Lady Demon has focused instead on the role of Violet in her small town and the satanic cult which has been present but unseen for some time.

This third issue of four develops some of the back story, made easier by the appearance of her mother at the end of the previous issue.  It turns this issue into a half and half mix of Violet’s background story combined with an assault on the cult by her and her mother.  As her back story is revealed, it becomes evident that Violet has been a part of this plot for longer than she could have known and that the people in her life were not as they seemed.

It is a simple story in a sense, but the simplicity is what makes this work.  Violet is an approachable character, easy to sympathize with but also written to be tough and able to direct her own fate, and her surrounding characters do not demand attention from her.  Even compared to her alter ego of Lady Demon, Violet mostly steals the show here.  It is still not a great comic, and the lack of quality of the Bad Girl era is still here, but it is nice to see in the Chaos reboot that a strong solid story can be told with a strong character as the lead.

Story: Aaron Gillespie Art: Mirka Andolfo
Story: 8.2  Art: 8.2  Overall: 8.2 Recommendation: Read

Dynamite provide Graphic Policy with a free copy for review