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I really enjoyes this run. It's been too damn long since Hellstorm has had any decent stories, this one doesnt disappoint, I enjoyed it more because it was a Max title which gave the character the much needed freedom to explore his moral dilema.
Marvel’s Hellstorm: Son of Satan reintroduces Daimon Hellstorm in a tale set in post-Katrina New Orleans. The titular son of the devil finds himself caught in the middle of a war between gods. Isis and her son, Horus, have come to New Orleans to resurrect the dead god Osiris. Satan’s demons have gathered body parts from both the living and the city’s cemeteries, apparently for the same purpose. Daimon Hellstorm fails to understand their conflict, as does the reader. He feels certain that he fits in the story somewhere. Ultimately, he decides to resurrect Osiris himself with the final missing part (take a guess) and then, very suddenly, end the fight between the two sides.
This fifth issue of Hellstorm occurs after the title character acted against both sides in the previous issue. Though, of course, a bloody fight ensues, Alexander Irvine uses this issue to explain the similar, yet conflicted, motivations driving the fight between Satan and Isis. Unfortunately, Irvine’s explanations occur in a voiceover by Hellstorm that lays everything out. And, the explanation feels contrived. It seems as if Irvine saw no way to logically end the story and concocted a plausible, yet unsatisfying conclusion – one that explained the motivations behind a scenario he’d envisioned out of context. I could be wrong. But, it looks like he’d tried to make sense of a conflict that, rightfully, doesn’t quite add up.
Still, Irvine created interesting circumstances to prompt the conflict between Satan and Isis – that her husband, Osiris, represents yet another face of the same god that dies and returns to life embodied in Christ and Adonis, as well as others. Satan hates this god. And yet, he sees a way to consummate his spite by fulfilling that very resurrection. It kind of makes sense, but I can’t help but think there might have been a better solution. Regardless, Irvine recast Daimon Hellstorm as a forlorn noir hero wandering a city that has seen more than its share of darkness. He provides the once overly-proud, amoral supporting character with a weather-beaten goodness that wants, more than anything, to understand his place.
Russ Braun’s art resembles John Romita, Jr.’s, but with a little less polish. It usually serves the material well, though a few of his long shots and background details don’t match the quality of the rest of the book. Most of the issue and, indeed, the whole series looks good, but the occasional misshapen face or background character makes you look twice.
Hellstorm: Son of Satan will probably please fans of Marvel horror well enough, but others may find it a bit unsatisfying.
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