(Image Comics, 2014)

Written by Josh Howard
Artwork by Josh Howard

Summary: Nara Kilday was just your average, ordinary 16 year old girl until she began seeing visions of the demons and figures. And began reciting a language even she was unaware of its origin. Then her life began to change, she died and was thrust into Purgatory. She was then resurrected and recruited into a clandestine organization known as Zodiac. Since then she’s been fighting all sorts of evil, and during the final showdown with Lilith the Witch Queen Nara died again. But after death, what is next?

Review: Blasphemy Throne has been something of a breath of fresh air in the world of comics. Having never read Dead@17 before this mini-series (something I have swiftly began to fix), I have found the imagination of these last two issues to be incredibly fun and intriguing. The Earth has fallen, nearing the end of days, and the only person who can save the human race is dead. But the supporting cast hasn’t given in, and are fighting back against the Beast as best they can. And the addition of sci-fi elements into the realm of Heaven is pretty great, I must say. Needless to say, I’m loving Blasphemy Throne.

My experience is hindered a bit though by the fact that this is an all-new mini-series, in which a casual reader may want to start from when they see it on the shelf, and there’s so many characters (some of who are not named but should be recognizable to those who follow the series) and history in the story that it is easy to get lost within’ the winding plot threads. I know last issue I had the crutch of a “story thus far…” page, but this time I had no such luxury and was throne (see what I did there?) into the thick of it.

It was jarring, and this is just further proof that I find the “continuing series in a bunch of a mini-series instead of one continuous series” method of story-telling that has been so prevalent in comics these days to be a bit of a handicap in bringing in new readers and not really that much of an advantage.

That being said, like I said before, Josh Howard has concocted a fine story with tons of creativity behind it and it has me definitely looking forward to the coming issues.

The art this issue is a bit of a step-down from last issue, but that’s probably because there’s just so much more going on with more characters than previously. I still love Howard’s art style though and its obvious anime/manga influence. His women are beautiful, and his men are gruff. But there is one creature that is seen early in the issue that is all white with 4 eyes… but the face that contains 3 of those eyes is honestly a lot more awkward to look at than I think Howard was going for. He probably should’ve toned down the eye-usage a bit.

Final Score: 3 Marks of the Beast out of 5

Derrick is a born and raised otaku with a love for comics, anime, manga and movies. The full list is pretty long, but that’s just the basics. Stories set in space are his bread and butter.

You can find more of his writing at IndieComix.net