Sword of Azrael #1 of 6......4 Stars

 Sword of Azrael # 1


It has been a long time coming, but DC's angel of death has returned in a six part mini series, with vigilante Jean Paul Valley once again suiting up to punish sinners by breaking jaws and bones in the Sword of Azrael...or does he, because this story has an interesting and unexpected plot twist to it, in which if I elaborate further, I will most certainly be putting out a spoiler. 

Hiding out in a monastery located somewhere off the Aegean Sea, Jean Paul Valley has fled Gotham City in order to make amends with his conscious after implementing a brutally violent regime as Gotham City's number one vigilante, while Bruce Wayne was incapacitated.(A warning to future superheroes not to allow your protege to be a test tube bay from the order of St Dumas with an uncontrollable rage issue ) I am assuming that DC is sticking to the original timeline here, whereby Jean Paul eventually leaves Gotham City to find himself and his origins in Europe, which therefore eventually leads to him becoming a monk in a monastery that kicks off this enticing 6 issue  mini series. 

If my recollection serves me right Jean Paul Valley's original creator was the late great Denny O Neil, to which I'm sure he would have been happy with the creative team of Dan Watters and Nikola Cizmesija upon publication of the first issue. The art is decent, but more importantly the writing is good. My only complaint is that I don't recall Jean Paul being so meek when his  Azrael persona was not in charge, but then again, though liking him, I've never been a big fan of the character overall, so his hardcore fanbase would know better than I. 

I am happy however to see a character who once had a successful run of 100 issues return. 20 years is probably too long to rekindle the fire, but you never know, the blazing sword of Azrael just might kindle some popularity in the character once again.

Worth the buy, 4 stars. 



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