Tensions Heat Up With ‘The Curse of Brimstone’ – Issue #1
So for a few months now I’ve been tackling DC’s latest arsenal of new titles for 2018. The one I’ve anticipated the most has finally arrived, The Curse of Brimstone. It recently arrived on store shelves and through Amazon’s Comixology in tandem with another new DC release, The Immortal Men. While I haven’t picked up the latter yet, I dove into Brimstone rather quickly. Writer Justin Jordan (The Strange Talent of Luther Strode) brings a hot pen to the book’s pages as Philip Tan (Final Crisis) delivers the scorching visuals. Pack some sunscreen because this book is going to burn.
Let’s get straight to the point. This first issue was great. It was dark, dreary, even depressing walking next to Joe Chamberlain, the story’s main character. I know what you’re thinking, “How can depressing be great??” What starts off as a down-on-his-luck young man, eventually spirals deliberately to someone at wit’s end. An internal cry for help leads to an unwitting invitation to someone arriving in the lowly town of York Hills who, if not completely unholy, is completely evil.
The build-up in this book is quite cleverly done as supporting characters are effectively introduced amidst the dreary backdrop of a decrepit town. Somehow, despite the limited page time of them, Justin Jordan makes us care about the supporting cast around Joe Chamberlain. Kudos to Jordan’s ability here because he doesn’t have a lot of time to develop numerous people in the book, yet he still pulls off that emotional connection. It all leads to the closing panels of issue #1 when all hell breaks loose (I kind of mean that literally).
Because of that, The Curse of Brimstone offered the biggest tease of all the new DC titles out for 2018 thus far. I am all in for issues 2, 3, 4 and beyond, provided this quality of writing and the gritty artwork stays the course. Jordan’s ability to tell a story matched up with the dirty, scratchy environments and characters drawn by Philip Tan make for a brilliantly dark, literary marriage. It all comes together for what could be building up to one vengeful tale.
