(I originally read these comics in early/mid December 2016)
I'm used to reading good comics by Matt Wagner. This belated continuation of Jack Kirby's Demon series (reviewed here) isn't one of them. It's crap.
Glenda Mark, lover of Gotham demonologist Jason Blood, tracks him down in Cornwall to investigate a possible connection between Blood's other half, Etrigan, and the demon Belial, to whom he bears a resemblance. In search of answers, Mark summons Etrigan, who sends the pair in search of a mystical tome that might provide answers and good God I'm getting bored just typing this. The first issue has to be one of the most off-putting openings ever, laden as it is with reams of dull conversation between two people whose history we're expected to be intimate with already. (Remember that, at the time, Kirby's original series was thirteen years in the past.) Things get even more laborious when Etrigan arrives on the scene, speaking only in page after page of forced rhyme. (Thank you Alan Moore for that ill-advised addition.) It wouldn't be so bad if the metre of his dialogue was consistent, but it changes from panel to panel, not allowing you to latch onto the rhythm before it changes completely.
I actually read this series twice because the first time I literally started to doze off every issue. Having a generally positive opinion of Matt Wagner's work, I figured the problem must be with me and so tackled it again just weeks later. However, the second time I couldn't even finish it. This is a dreadfully dull and interminable series and reading it is just too much of a chore. Never again.
The Demon (1987) # 1-4 are collected in:
Softcover:
