It feels very procedural, like a television series, while at the same time relying heavily on conventions from the comic book world. It's like Heroes, only I care to actually read and enjoy this.

Chris Samnee does another bang up job on the artwork. His artwork is constantly evolving which can be seen between this issue and the last. When I mention that he reminds me of Michael Lark and David Mazzuchelli, in the same instance he takes a very Lee Weeks/John Romita JR. stance as well. He relies heavily on the dark, the dark tones, the grayscales, the heavy black inks. It's awesome. His art can absolutely do no wrong.

But I worry about the issue at hand.

As an origin story for a new Devil-Slayer in the MAX universe, it almost feels abrupt throwing everything into 4 issues. Last issue we didn't see the Devil-Slayer at all, just Iraq, demons, and soldiers. This issue, more demons, more soldiers, still in Iraq, and the creepy 'journalist' from the first issue reveals himself to be someone who has been in the shadows, following Danny the entire time, protecting him and making sure his life lead up to this.

It's all a little cliche, isn't it?

The journalist dies and his imbedded man-servant becomes the Devil-Slayer's man-servant and takes him to the cave where he needs to go to get the Devil-Slayer garb. And of course, it was a trap.

But see, everything moves really fast past that opening scene with the demons that look like Tony Moore. It's an okay story overall, but everything is accepted so quickly. Danny accepts his new role as Devil-Slayer and that his life had to be a living hell to lead him back to Iraq for this exact moment. He accepts it so quickly that your left with your head spinning. And he becomes Devil-Slayer based on the words of one dead man and one man he's never met before.

It just seems fishy to me.

Had the book taken more time and possibly thrown Danny into the situation of finding the Devil-Slayer garb and sword and then finding out it was a trap and being cornered by the demons, it would have worked better. Then we would have known that next issue would be a doozy because he'd have to decide if he was up to the challenge, instead of just freely accepting it so quickly.

But them's the breaks. I bought this book for Samnee's art. I will buy anything future for Samnee's art. I just hope the next thing he does allows him a bigger focus and more of a showcase.