Abraham “Abe” Morgenstern, the son of Satan, has one month to live. Before he dies, he must decide which of his three wayward children—volatile narcissist Nero, conflicted field operative Jackal, or troubled schoolgirl Bee—will inherit his shadowy empire. But will Abe ever be able to truly cede control of the Apocalypse? Or does the Antichrist have something else up his sleeve… The Infernals #1 introduces a classic mob story but delivers a twist as to who’s really in charge.

Written by Noah Gardner and Ryan Parrot, The Infernals #1 is an interesting and fun debut… in a wicked sort of way. The issue packs a lot in. It delivers the setup of its concept, but more importantly, who the key players are in all of it… and even a nice unexpected twist at the end. The story is simple, a mob boss is dying and needs to decide who will take over. It just so happens that this mob boss is the Antichrist and all his kids are utter horrible beings who use their powers to manipulate, torture, and just be terrible. It’s what you’d expect and what’s teased of their relationships, things might get really entertaining as they each jockey for whatever’s next.

But, Gardner and Parrot leave the door open to something for more interesting than just horrible individuals trying to take over a mob. That’s the fun twist at the end that should make things going forward even more intriguing.

The art by John J. Pearson is solid. With an assist by Lola Bonato and lettering by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, the art has a look that reminds me of Top Cow comics. Not sure how to describe they style but there’s an almost rough, dreamlike look to it all that’s interesting and fits its rather dark characters at the center of everything. And even with those dark characters, the comic itself doesn’t go too far in that direction, instead giving a sort of gloomy look to it all.

The Infernals #1 is an interesting and fun start that has a lot of potential to turn into some wicked entertainment. It shows glee in its main characters doing bad but not to the extent it cheers them on and encourages it. The comic makes it clear, these are horrible beings are the entertainment is horrible beings being horrible to each other. How far that will go will be interesting.

Story: Noah Gardner, Ryan Parrott Art: John J. Pearson
Art Assistant: Lola Bonato Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Story: 8.0 Art: 8.0 Overall: 8.0 Recommendation: Read

Image Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Purchase: Zeus Comics – Kindle