For those unfamiliar with the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, basically, Eurydice dies, Orpheus enters the Underworld to get her back and because humans can never resist in myths, he breaks the one rule that can keep him from succeeding.
Writer Cullen Bunn (of the fantastic horror-western, The Sixth Gun) has taken that tale and turned it into a supernatural adventure story with religious overtones and hints that every character has a dark, secret past. It’s kind of awesome.
Now in its third issue, Hellbreak’s major arcs are just taking shape. After getting separated, the members of Team Orpheus realize that getting back Javier Romero’s soul from his unique version of Hell is going to be anything but routine. While team leader Jenner is forced to confront nightmare visions of his deceased wife and second-in-command Nadia realizes that the children they found may not be so helpless, back above ground, Romero’s wife Alexa reveals she may not want him back at all.
Bunn typically likes to play a long game with his stories. His mythologies and characters are so complex that just a single issue per month never feels like enough. While some might prefer to wait for the inevitable trade paperbacks at the end of every arc to start reading Hellbreak, once you start, it’ll be hard to stop—especially because artist Brian Churilla (of the late, great The Secret History of DB Cooper) and colorist Dave Stewart bring the world to such vibrant life. Nobody draws mutant hell-beasts like Churilla and his work alone is worth reading it on a monthly basis.
Rating: 7/10
==============================================================================================================
By day, Marisa Carpico stresses over every detail of America’s election system. By night, she becomes a pop culture and celebrity obsessive. Whether it’s movies, TV or music, she watches and listens to it all so you don’t have to. You can find her risking her life by reading comic books while walking down the crowded streets of New York City, having inappropriate emotional reactions at her iPad screen while riding the subway or occasionally letting her love of a band convince her to stand for hours on end in one of the city’s many purgatorial concert spaces. You can follow her on Twitter to read her insightful social commentary or more likely complain about how cold it is at @MarisaCarpico.
====================================================================================
Comments are closed.