Son’s going down, watch yourself.
So, in The Bible, after Jesus dies on the cross, he opens the gates of Heaven and allows those who have been suffering in Hell to enter the Divine Kingdom. Doesn’t go much beyond that in Scripture, and that’s where Demon Slayer takes over. Jesus has come to free the souls of the shouldn’t-be-damned from Lucifer’s pitch-forky grasp. In the first page, we have a “no more mister nice deity” line, and there’s a lot of a*$-kicking in store.
When writers and artists play in Hell, all sorts of things happen. As I’ve seen, people go freaking bananas, and normally morally straight folks can come up with some of the most disturbing interpretations of biblical script. Writer Matt Schorr seems to be no exception. Mixing underworld myths, Jesus first encounters Cerberus at the Gate and lays into that puppy (Sorry.) but good. This script is full of the righteous kind of fury, like a Paladin unleashed in the UnderDark, reminiscent of the “glorious battle” kind of Bible stories like St. Michael casting down Lucifer or St. George slaying the dragon (which in statuary and stained glass I cannot typically tell which is supposed to be which, though the version in Batman: Arkham Asylum A Serious House on Serious Earth with Bruce and Croc is maybe my favorite iteration). Schorr has a good command of the source material, and there seems to be no stopping his hell-bent (Sorry.) Savior.
The artwork, aside from the cover, is minimal. This vision of Hell seems to be more of the “empty darkness away from God’s light” style, where Mammon sends his two hench . . . uh . . . sexpot slaves(?) who are more covered than I expected. The restraint in the art seems aimed to widen the audience to JC’s normal crowd, and they’ll likely cheer along as Jesus casts down and lays waste to the icky nasties that populate The Morning Star’s domain.
This book is fun for anyone who doesn’t mind trading their “Turn the other cheek” Messiah for a “cut off their damn head” one. This is Jesus if Charlton Heston had an extended cut, full of smiting and burning swords.
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