Death Vigil Review: Rocket Ismail
Death Vigil was written and drawn up by author Stjepan Sejic. The comic hit the market after being published July 9, 2014. The comic follows the Vigil, an order that protects the living from the necromancers and the creatures they serve/summon into the world. The Vigil consist of people who died and were recruited by the Grim Reaper herself, who at this time around goes by the name Bernadette. After there recruitment, each member proceeds to sport a spiffy new white hair do and get powers unique to their person. The powers revolve around the character and life or memory thereof. Objective. The weapons themselves are called Defend the universe from chaos and its offspring, the necromancers. The stories are forty pages of humorous, avant garde, action packed and emotion filled art and story boards. The monsters were spectacular and seeing them on full page spreads both drew you aback as a reader. The art was captivating and wonderfully drawn. Sejic's art is similarly appropriate for the tone he sets in the writing, balancing epic evil and the closeness of a created family of supernatural fighters of evil with ease. He pulls no punches when it comes to otherworldly monsters, both the good guys and the bad. The quality of art work shows how much thought and care. As a novice to the comic book industry found that the Death Vigil series does not disappoint. It constant blending of comedic relief and grotesque, but elegant art work catch both appeal to both reader’s emotions and sense of mystery and fantasy. The plot for Death Vigil was brilliantly designed and hooked you in on the first issue. The issues flowed as smoothly as a novel and the transitions were so good, that it gave the whole comic series the feel of a graphic novel.
Although going through each and every single volume and discussing how great and amazing everything flowed form character to plot development would be a fun process to review. I would prefer writing about what got me hooked to the comic series itself, and that’s all 40 pages of Stjepan Sejic’s Death Vigil #1. The comic book itself was quite a bit kind hearted and had a constant, well thought out sense of humor beneath the immense amount a violence and gore. What got me hooked as a reader was the combination of both humor, intense violence and relatable characters, along with the amazing art work and creativity displayed on each page. It took me back to a movie that just recently came out, Deadpool, that used the same combination. In one scene we see Deadpool in handcuffs after being discovered by Colossus. The next thing you know Deadpool is cutting of his hand with his sword and next thing you know a hand is laying on the ground and Deadpool is bleeding just like anyone else would if their hand got cut off. However, because of his humor towards the gory situation, I couldn’t help but laugh and take in the fact that my reaction to what is considered to be an almost traumatic situation is numbed by Deadpool smart ass remarks and his humorous indifferent towards his missing limb. Both Death Vigil and Deadpool use humor and trauma, and use it effectively. With the main topic being death and life after death, it would be easy for Death Vigil to become extremely morbid and dark comic book series, way to serious in terms of commentary and script, however because of the comedic relief and sincere virtue of Sejic’s, the contrast between humor shown in character dialogue and darkness portrayed through monsters of the spirit realm and death itself, is a pleasant surprise.
Another volume I thoroughly was volume #6. After a devastating battle between Mia, and ally to the vigil, and the Orach, monsters fighting against the Vigil, New York is left speechless, the Vigil in shock, and Bernadette captured. Sejic adventures around to the softer side of Bernadette like we saw in volume #1. She shows deep empathy for man-kind and is distraught when she fails humanity. She bears the burden well and remains persistent on speaking truth.
In terms of character development, things began to become around full circle with Sam and Clara. We get to visit a precious memory of Sam’s, a member of the Vigil, and it reveals why he was a given a veilripper in the shape of a pickax and shove as a weapon for fighting in the afterlife, showing his strength and constant determination. One big surprise Sejic slaps you in the face with is Clara’s new founds necromantic powers and the concept of those powers being harmful to the vigil.
Yet a again we see Sejic immaculate artwork can be appreciate just as much as it did in the 5 volumes before it. There is one page that I stood out to me specifically. We first see the normal rectangle panels, but with the whole middle section of the page is a big rectangle with smaller panels. It gives you a sense of all the chaos and actions sequences taking place. The transitions from this page to the next transforms chaos into memories, capturing Clara’s trying to sort out her thoughts, bringing order to chaos.
Overall the Death Vigil Series, volumes #1-#8 showed great character development, fantastic artwork, and humorous entertaining dialogue. If there would be anything I would critique, it would be that volume #6. With that, the only issue I found was the lack of big action sequences. Other than that Stjepan Sejic did a fantastic job on Death Vigil, a key highlight being his artwork and character dialogue. He successfully kept me as a reader engaged and always wanting more as I transitioned from volume to volume. The issue gets a 9/10 from me and I can’t wait until the next issue of volumes comes out to see what more artwork and creativity Sejic can come up with.