Azrael #17 Review

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The less said about last months debacle the better in my eyes. The difference between this issue and the last is night and day, or in Azrael's case life and death. Azrael is back from the dead thanks to Ra's Al Ghul and the Lazarus pit, why we don't know yet and how Ra's fits in with the Order of Purity, well we really don't know that either. Again no real questions are answered but where this issue stands above last months is that the story here is actually pretty good so I can live with being in the dark some more.

Michael Lane has come back from the dead, he's different, more focused and now very suspicious of Father Day after learning the secret of the Order. He has been given a new mission, to find the Brother's of the Sword, a radical religious sect hiding somewhere in Afghanistan. The Brotherhood has acquired a new weapon, one they call 'Fireball'. Fireball is a young man who seems to have some pyrokinetic powers. The Brotherhood call him Malak al-malut, the angel of death who we all know is commonly named Azrael.

Much, much better this month. Writer David Hine touches on some intriguing possibilities for what the Lazarus pit has actually done to Lane. He fights with the knowledge of every wearer of the suit of sorrows. Has a dip in the pit finally broken the curse that has taken the sanity of every wearer the suit has had before? Hine is very smart in the way he scripted this issue, on the surface it seems Lane is back and ready to take up the mantle of Azrael once more but you can't help but think that there is something more sinister hiding beneath the surface. Cliff Richards art is better this time around, his use of detail, color and angles work particular well. I'm glad things are starting to look up again for one of the most unique books on my pull list. 

Writer: David Hine
Art: Cliff Richards
Colors: Tomeu Morey
Letters: Dave Sharpe
Cover: Guillem March
Publisher: DC Comics