Azrael, Vol. 1: Angel in the Dark

Azrael (2009) #1

by Fabian Nicieza, Ramón F. Bachs (Illustrator)

Following the events of BATMAN: BATTLE FOR THE COWL, Michael Lane searches for redemption as the new Azrael, but will serving the Order of Purity as God's Angel of Justice help him achieve his goal - or send him further down a road paved with good intentions? When a hired killer comes to Gotham City seeking revenge for crimes committed decades in the past, Azrael faces an impossible conflict: What if God's justice forces the hero to claim one of God's servants? The White Ghost presents a trial to the new Azrael: save an Angel or condemn a Devil! While it may sound like a simple choice, Azrael has to decide if the perceived saint is a sinner or if the sinner is an innocent man. And what if the architect of the experiment, Ra's al Ghul, is secretly testing all those involved to see who can best serve as his ultimate Dark Knight?

Collects AZRAEL #1-6.

Genres: Comics, Batman, Graphic Novels

144 pages, Paperback

First published December 14, 2010

About the author

Fabian Nicieza is a writer and editor who is best known as the co-creator of DEADPOOL and for his work on Marvel titles such as X-Men, X-Force, New Warriors, and Robin.

His first novel, the Edgar Award-nominated SUBURBAN DICKS, a sarcastic murder mystery, is on sale now from Putnam Books.

The Dicks will return in THE SELF-MADE WIDOW, coming June 21st.

Reviews

[Jeff]

Gosh, Mr. Clark, it has a lousy beat, you can’t dance to it and I have no idea what the lyrics mean.

Oh wow! It’s an Azreal graphic novel. *crickets*

The character of Azreal is under new management. The previous holder of this cape and cowl was an intense guy (Read: lunatic). He took over for Batman Bruce Wayne tried to break Bane’s knee with his back. It didn’t go so well. and used his Wolverine man crush to add claws (?!?) and other nasty stuff to Batman’s arsenal.

Lesson for the kids: Don’t be raised by a centuries old religious cult and get brainwashed to battle sin. You can kiss your dreams of being an accountant goodbye.



So how’s what’s his name faring as the new Azreal? Well, have you ever played Whack-a-Mole? Let’s play plot line Whack-a-Mole DC comics’ style. The plot points can come in any order and don’t have to make a lick of sense in the grand scheme of things. Grab your mallet! Ready! Set! Go!

+ Revenge on pedophile priests

+ A villain called the White Ghost who’s, depending on the panel and issue, trying to enlist/test/kill/give a hug to Azreal

+ A cop who has ties to The Order of St. Dumas. This is the cult who raises all of the Azreal(s), so it they come to your door wearing white shirts and bow ties, spreading the good word, don’t open the freaking door.

+ A relative of the new Azreal (what’s his name? I forgot.) who kills people but gets a pass from Batman and the GCPD because “the devil made her do it”. Seriously, you can turn the sarcasm machine off for that last one.

+ A riot between Gotham’s Jewish and Palestinian communities

+ A Gulf War vet who is killing Iraqis based on some alphabet scheme.

+ More flashbacks than the entire run of Lost.

+ Azreal spends an entire issue reading

+ Appearances by Batman, Robin, Oracle and Huntress (Yesss!). This isn’t enough to juice the book.

Bottom line: Whew! Who knew Whack-A-Mole could be so exhausting.

[Garrett]

The ongoing Azrael series is a little bit like a dim-witted 2nd cousin. He tries hard to make you like him but screws most everything up and isn't closely related enough to you (or in this case Batman)to make up for it. The new Azrael, God's avenger or something or other, is Michael Lane. An ex-cop, ex-marine, ex-lived-in-the-projects, blahblahblah... he was chosen by an ancient Christian cult the Order of St. Dumas to be Gotham's protector. In exchange, he gets to live in a nice apartment. I dunno... this book attempts to tackle issues of religious persecution, racial intolerance, and throws in some cameos by Batman to get morons like me who buy every Bat-title out there to purchase it. The writing is occasionally funny, but I am not certain whether this was intentional or not. The art is godawful, like they dragged out someone who worked on low-end pulp back in the 70's. The main character is brooding and unengaging, the back story is unintelligible, and I don't know why this was greenlit other than maybe to brag that they have a Bat-title featuring a minority? As soon as Batwing took off, they killed this book so that is my hypothesis. I spent $18 on this.

[Joey]

I was hoping this series would be penciled by Fabian Nicieza, but I discovered he’s the writer after I bought the issues. That mistake is on me for snatching dollar comics somewhat blindly. The covers are great, but the interior art is a gritty, yet slightly cartoonish combination, similar to the Eastman and Laird TMNT art style. That’s kind of an acquired taste, depending on the material. Also I prefer the Jean-Paul Valley Azrael.

[Jocelyn]

I read this as comics - issues 1 - 6.
It jumped around too much and bored me a lot. This would be a one star rating save issue 4 which was pretty good.

[Nat]

If you like Azrael you will like this.

[Aaron]

Better than the atrocious prelude, but this still lacks anything to compel me to keep reading the series (other than the fact that I read pretty much everything in the Batman family, since I'm an idiot). The first issue in this collection seems to set up a bigger arc, with foreshadowing and loads of boring character setup. However, the following 5 issues do almost nothing to feed into that, making it seem like an utter waste of time. Each issue presents a brief, one-off story of Azrael, but the storytelling style is so disjointed and unfocused that it's very difficult to tell why anything matters. The 2nd issue actually has a decent twist and very nearly makes you give a damn about Azrael, but then the 3rd chapter shoves nonsense right back down your throat with no justification or backstory.

I'm starting to realize something about Nicieza. When he uses tons and tons and tons of narration in his stories, they read a little more interesting. He brings more character into those books thanks to the (fairly cheap) device. When he doesn't use narration, though (and there is no in between), it is very difficult to follow what is going on or why anyone is doing anything they're doing. So, regardless, the only thing I've ever read by Nicieza that I genuinely enjoyed was Cable & Deadpool. Wondering if I should revisit that and make sure.

[Alex Brown]

meh. It was ok, not that good but not bad either, just simply ok. Probably not the greatest azrael story you could read, and it comes to kind of a sudden end. I honestly dont have much to say about it, just that it was ok. If you dont like azrael that much then dont get it. The cover art for all the issues are really cool, but nothing like the art on the pages, so in all it was ok.
ART:5.5
STORY:4
ACTION:6
CHARACTERS:3
(out of ten)

[John Yelverton]

Despite the fact that there's a seeming connection with this character, it's a completely new character who's even more messed up than his predecessor.

[Mohammad Aboomar]

I knew it was gonna be bad. Never thought it's gonna be THIS bad.