I was pretty excited about Dynamite giving Purgatori her own series again. She’s the character I remember the most from Chaos! Comics’ olden days and so her getting a huge push in the Chaos! series and then also a solo series was a nice surprise. That is until I read it. Not even the cheesiest of cheesy Chaos! Comics were as bad as this issue. Now while I enjoyed Purgatori’s role in the Chaos! series, the same could not be said for the story or other characters involved. I lost interest quickly which is a shame because this book seems to pick up right after the end events of that story.

We find Purgatori waking up hanging upside down in hell with some hooks in her and Hel and Lucifer arguing over who gets her. Hel wants her back, but Lucifer says finders keepers. There’s a bunch of pointless dialogue and some fighting and the gist is that Purgatori loves being tortured so she’s actually enjoying her stay. She gets hooked up to a machine that she doesn’t like and shortly after Lucifer kicks her to the earth realm.

There she discovers that she’s weak and void of her powers. Lucifer has returned her to being just a normal vampire unable to control her blood lust and void of fangs.

The story itself was mediocre. The dialogue is basic and void of any real essence. While reading it it’s hard to image that more than one person is talking because they all talk the same and it’s very awkward and slow-moving. Out of the gate this comic was bad, but then it got worse.

There’s an attempted rape scene, but let’s just call it what it is… a rape scene. The only reason it’s “attempted” is because they can’t or won’t show it happening. Why it was necessary is beyond me. Is it used to show that Purgatori isn’t as strong as she was? Possibly, but then there were a hundred other ways of showing that. What’s worse is that there’s a hooker involved in the scene that actually helps hold her down… what? If there is a plus side to this scene (just kidding there isn’t) it’s the fact that Purgatori kills both of them. I can’t tell you how quickly this ruined the character for me and made me want to not read anything else by the writer.

And that’s all there is to the issue. The scenes between Hell and the rape are just there to get her to the rape. They don’t add anything to the story other than trying to push the envelope with hate speech and violence towards women with throwaway dialogue. It’s close to being the worst comic book I’ve ever read and maybe after some more thought it might actually take the title.

The art is actually pretty good for the most part. It relies on the narration and dialogue to tell the story because without it you really couldn’t tell what the overall issue is about. In fact you would just think that Purgatori is being tortured and then raped.

The chances of me being back for another issue of Purgatori is slim and none which is a really big disappointment considering how much I like the character; the problem being… this isn’t a good depiction of the character. Don’t waste your time or money on this one folks.

Score: 1/5

Writer: Aaron Gillespie Artist: J.G. Miranda Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment Price: $3.99 Release Date: 9/17/14 Format: Print/Digital