Deliver Us From Evil #4 - Blood Moon Comics

DELIVER US FROM EVIL No. 4, September 2024

Described by its Pennsylvania-based publisher as a “climactic finale” in which its “readers are plunged into an epic showdown spanning centuries”, this twenty-page periodical’s plot certainly had a lot to live up. And fortunately, Peter Breau’s time-travelling narrative seemingly does just that, depicting a nail-biting confrontation on the streets of ancient Judea between this comic’s eclectic central characters and their fanatical foes. Indeed, despite the subsequent skirmish involving all manner of magical spells and the odd bladed hand-weapon, some bibliophiles may find its fast-paced ferociousness strangely reminiscent of the savage gunfight at the O.K. Corral; “They dare trespass here? I’ve witnessed empires crumble, felt the weight of ancient thrones.”

In addition to this book’s pulse-pounding biblical battle however, Issue Four of “Deliver Us From Evil” should also grab its audience’s attention with the (return) appearance of the highly intellectual sasquatch Solomon Bishop, and the utterly bizarre Admiral Tentara. Between them, this pair of unlikely figures rather enjoyably progress one of this title’s secondary threads which results in the Agents of D.R.E.D.D. successfully storming the cultists’ covert headquarters and reclaiming the slightly disconcerting Jesus Battery. These sense-shattering sequences are debatably made all the more intriguingly surreal by the presence of the heavily-armed assault squad’s leader, who despite utilising an unmistakably female robotic form, is actually just an octopus squirming its way inside a water-filled dome-for-a-head.

Prodigiously pencilling all these surprising shenanigans in black and white, is Mattia Doghini. The artist does an excellent job in making even the more sedentary, dialogue driven panels remarkably bewitching by rather cleverly ‘shooting each shot’ from a different ‘camera’ angle. This technique genuinely imbues all the cast with some convincing dynamism – even when they’re the aforementioned walking yeti and an aquatic, eight-limbed mollusc riding around in a large goldfish bowl. Furthermore, the Italian illustrator absolutely nails the tense stand-off between the Obsidian Veritatis Dominion and the Abyssal Covenant of the Shrouded Traitor, with his thunderous sketch of Silent Violent soundly defeating the “insidious cult bent on rewriting history” proving to be a picture well worth perusing for some time before moving on to the deadly after-effects of the facially disfigured nun’s war cry.

The regular cover art to "DELIVER US FROM EVIL" #4 by Stefano Cardoselli