Exorcists Never Die #4 // Review
Greed is a dragon resting on a massive pile of gold deep beneath Los Angeles. On any other Earth, this might be a metaphor. (And...probably a pretty good assessment of the producers in Hollywood who stand against the unions.) This is a different kind of Earth, though. This is the Earth of writer Steve Orlando’s Exorcists Never Die. In the fourth issue, Orlando continues his fantasy adventure through the seven deadly sins with another issue drawn by Sebastián Piriz. Having survived quite a lot, two fearless exorcists make their way into the dragon’s lair in a fun fantasy drama with a sharp sense of wit.
Syd and Ellen might be terrified. They’re standing perfectly still. They’re wide-eyed and motionless. The dragon of greed sits on vast rolling hills of gold coins that are punctuated by statues of gold and the occasional fabulously expensive sports car. They’re being offered all that they could ever want...by Greed itself. There are those in the hoard who had stood where Syd and Ellen are now. They’re gold statues. It’s a simple offer: become a part of Greed’s horde, and you can have everything. In return, Greed gets...you. And you turn into a gold statue, but...that’s fair, right?
It’s the sort of threat that’s been placed before SO many heroes of so many different cultures, going all the way back to the dawn of legend: give up your quest, and you can have all that you have ever wanted. It’s sort of a Christian variation on the Island of the Lotus Eaters in The Odyssey. Orlando offers a little bit of additional variation on the premise that allows for a deeper gaze into the psyches of Ellen and Syd. It’s an enjoyable episode of fantasy drama. Orlando DOES make it feel believable on a dramatic and psychological level, but there isn’t much to the encounter with Greed that feels terribly interesting.
Piriz bathes the page in gold tones that amplify the power of Orlando’s script. He has done a tremendous job of allowing the emotions of Ellen and Syd to play across their faces, even as they stand wide-eyed at it all, in danger of becoming the very gold statues that stand before them in warning. Piriz nails the size differential between that massive dragon of greed and the relatively small stature of the exorcists in their gleaming armor. There isn’t a whole lot of physical action, but Piriz still manages to make it feel like a bracing adventure.
Envy is next. There are quite a few ways to play out a conflict with the abstract entity of Envy, but only a few of them are actually going to feel all that interesting. Envy can make people do some very, very vicious things, but Envy in and of itself isn’t really a very powerful force without someone to work through. Orlando is going to have a hell of a time framing the conflict on the same sort of heroic level that he’s managed with the other sins thus far.
