Don’t confuse this book with The Divine Comedy. I mean, you obviously already know that it’s a comic, but this is NOT an adaptation of the original. Put your Cliff Notes away and settle down. Christos Gage and Diego Latorre are the creators of this book, not Dante Alighieri. What’s more, this book is actually more focused on the story for the upcoming Dante’s Inferno video game by EA than the work by the heretic poet.
Dante, the hero, cares only for his true love Beatrice and his religious convictions. He is sent away to fight in the crusades and while he is gone, his love is killed. Though Beatirce has a pure soul, she meets with the devil and he shows her the atrocities that Dante has committed at war. She denies his claims and offers a wager for her own soul that Dante will be able to rescue her from the pit of hell. If he fails, she will remain the possession of the devil.
Diego Latorre is an incredible illustrator. There are some very haunting and gothic images in this comic. There are also some beautiful panels in this book that are so well done, that they would make amazing pieces in an art collection. The most ominous image in this story was not that of Satan, but of the Minotaur. He is an imposing beast with a massive bovine skull atop an even bigger human frame. Again, an image that would look good framed and hanging in a studio.
What I disliked about the art is Latorre’s story telling. There is no flow to what is going on in the comic. There is some uncertainty to Gage’s story that could have been alleviated with a different artist, or at least a different approach. At some points the art was so murky, that I couldn’t make out what figure was in the panel or who was speaking. The background is the same through out the whole comic. Only the characters change, and that is still minimal. In a book that will contain nine different levels of hell, I would like to see the distinctiveness of each level.
The story is good, but not great. I think having to follow a story from a video game is probably a hindrance to what Christos Gage could really do with it if it were his own idea. As it is, the story feels a choppy. Add the ambiguous art of Diego Latorre, and the book becomes a clash of styles.
I would recommend this comic to someone who is looking for a book because of the outstanding art and not the story. It really is visually stunning when viewed as separate panels. If this series continues, it will be the next series that your shop owner hands out to you for free when you pick up your holds. Overall, I would say that this book is dismal and forgettable.
