Broken Frontier

At the conclusion of Dark Horse’s Devil miniseries, we’re left with a message more of life than death. What are our goals, our aspirations? Is there a purpose to the future without love, or does love even matter if there’s no future? Vampires born of the science fiction genre have been the focus of this four-part comic since it began in February, but it ends on a note dedicated to humanity.

From the first issue, Devil wasn’t afraid of violence. And each issue progressively increased the level of bloodshed, being topped off in the third installment with an eye-catching massacre on the part of crazed S-level Devil Nishioka in a “Costic’s” big-bulk warehouse store. I’m guessing it’s a tip of writer/artist Torajiro Kishi’s hat to Costco. What can I say? We in the West love to buy our paper plates and toilet paper in bulk.

But this violence doesn’t detract from the impact of the finale. For anyone who needs a recap, Officer Migiwa was taken hostage by Nishioka in order for him to gain access to the sterilized chamber of Mariko, the government-created Devil specimen. She has the slick appearance of a drug-addled angel, but the feisty personality of a, well, devil. She’s the creator of Nishioka, who’s developed an obsession with her. He wants to lord over the lonely world and its frightened inhabitants with her as his queen.

Migiwa’s government access will grant him entry into Mariko’s inner chamber, but not before Devil-hunter extraordinaire Takimoto takes one last crack at destroying the Devil menace that’s haunted his memories since the beginning of the story. I won’t say how it ends, but the grace that Kishi maintains in his final pages is commendable. Let’s face it: conclusions are oftentimes the most challenging aspect of storytelling. When they’re done right, they deserve recognition. It’s done right here.

The Devil miniseries is a bleak slice-of-life story of a dystopian future. It can’t be more than that at only four 25-page issues. But it’s pulled off with such savvy and such exciting grace that it holds up to the shadowy tales on the Dark Horse bookshelf.