A review by lacee
Darkness Visible, Vol. 1 by Brendan Cahill, Arvind Ethan David, Livio Ramondelli, Mike Carey

3.0

I initially picked this up for the cool looking demon on the cover and after reading the synopsis I was ready to give this comic a shot. The plot can be broken down to a demon possession story with a couple twists. The demons in this world need human hosts and you can probably deduce where the story could go. I personally love this story idea, but the execution left much to be desired. Chapter 1's writing is a bit choppy and you're thrown into this world without much context. Now, I do stand by the theory of "less is more" but some context would have made the beginning a little less disorienting.

Chapter 3 and 6 have the opposite problem. The entire third chapter is exposition and is pretty much pointless plot wise. It explains where the demons came from but that could have been cleverly sprinkled in throughout the story. The final chapter, Chapter 6, is similar though not as pointless. Ultimately, both chapters make the story line come to a halt and you're left bored for thirty pages or so before you get back to the action. Also, the art in these chapters was just not for me and was jarringly out of place, which, is a shame. The rest of the chapters have beautiful art and unique character designs for the demons.

I won't say this is a bad comic but I wished the story had picked up a little sooner. I did eventually become invested around chapter 4 just to have the story take a detour toward the end. I'm pretty sure this comic was dropped and probably won't get any more issues. Knowing that, I would suggest skipping this comic. This volume ends mid-plot and without the conclusion I would say this one would be a waste of your time.