Local legends, demonic creatures and hellspawn, legacy characters, and backstabbing bastards who were undercover. I think I mentioned this previously about this book but it has all the things that make a great TV show, a great movie, and a great DC character. The idea of the legacy is one DC sometimes puts into great affect (Blue Beetle, Dr. Fate, Spectre, now El Diablo) and it's one thing that always gets me excited. To see how new characters fill the roles of a certain older hero.

And Chato Santana is shaping up to be a real son of a bitch. He's more interested in his own personal vendetta for getting crippled and basically sold to hell as a Spirit of Vengeance, and the man who put him in jail, Agent Alex Aaron, is on his path for destruction.

The book deals with this quite well. It allows the character of Aaron to be a family man and a partner. It doesn't dwell too terribly long on Chato when it realizes it needs breathing space, so it involves Aaron and it involves how he is dealing with being hunted. How his family will have to deal with it.

When the two meet again, it's because that is what the El Diablo curse has requested. He cannot seek his own vengeance, the curse takes him where he is supposed to go. And he has to save Agent Aaron and his partner from an agent of Satan. Of course, this works out in El Diablo's favor, as he actually gets to find out who set him up and why.

The book is going in a million different directions all at once, but the endgame is clear. I love it. Nitz does a fantastic job fleshing these characters out as real human beings. When Chato and Lazarus have to move through the desert and the Lazarus ghost has to push Chato in a wheelchair, it's funny. When Aaron is saying goodbye to his family for what could possibly be the last time, it's heartbreaking. When Chato learns that his second in command set him up, it's tense.

These are all great bits of storytelling that make me wish that this was an ongoing series and not just a mini. With the first issue, I was worried about making this new character a gang member and making him seem almost completely irredeemable. Obviously, I was wrong and Jai through that in my face very quickly. We have a feeling he will do the right thing now, so its just a matter of time.

The artwork by Hester and Parks is outstanding. One gripe I used to have when they worked on Green Arrow was the sometimes lack of backgrounds in that book, but here it's never a question. The artwork is strong, awesome, and just plain right for the gritty desert feel of the book. The colors are a little bright for this piece of work, but as a whole, it's a great thing to enjoy.

This is one book I will continue on, unabated, throughout these next four months. And I'm requesting another mini as we speak, or even an ongoing. It's too good to not continue the story.