(W) Frank J. Barbiere (A) J.C. Grande, Luke Radl
Story, character development, plot twist, all of this is what makes a good comic, but with such a limited space, these things tend have a hard time coming across in a one shot. Divine Interventions, while it has some problems, doesn't fall in the all traps it could have. A nice refreshing blend of fantasy and horror, coupled, admittedly, with some faults, ends with a comic that may just be for you.
Divine Interventions is a story about a bad man gone good with a heavy influence of a centralized church much in the same vane as Top Cow's Magdalena. The main character of this story, Marc, stumbles on some new powers, that others want to have. We can see here, that the story is pretty standard, but in order to make room for other plot points and development, a standard story here actually helps the comic as a whole. Simply put, there isn't enough space to set up the story that, “could have been” in here.
What we get in this story is lots of magic and mystical beings in a world that seems to have gone to a darker place. There really is a lot to this world and lots that could be explored. By the end of the comic you sort of feel a sense of wonder about this fictional world. What other creatures exist? What about some of the mythology? Many questions left for the reader to think about, it's almost like a tease, something bigger could have happened here, and in truth, the comic is left open to continue.
The problem the comic has stems from writing that tends to be a bit circular and explains what we see. Some of the character's inner-narratives tell the obvious or tries to speak how “normal people” speak but feels a bit forced. It takes the reader out of the comic at times which is never good.The comic could have benefited from letting the art tell the story a little bit more and just letting the writing flow better, instead of being so rigid at times. In the end though, the writing isn't that bad. We can see a clear consistent nature of the characters and we all so get some scenes that are actually pretty intriguing.
Now, we can't talk about a comic book and not mention the art. The art here, fits the bill of a fantasy/horror comic. Just a glance at it and you pretty much know what genre of comic you are getting yourself into. At times the art seems to get a little too loose and characters and backgrounds tend to lose a certain level of detail. A little more consistency would have have been nice in this one, but all in all, the art here is pretty standard. The colors do tend to pop at all the right times which gives the comic a nice amount of visual leverage that really helps push a fantasy/horror comic like this.
In the end this comic is fun. You can invest yourself in the “what could be” and let your imagination take off. Though it would be nice to have an answers to the what could be, but this is what we got and maybe one day we will get just a little bit more.
