Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics, Review | Tagged: andre mossa, blade, daimon hellstrom, david baldeon, defenders, Hellstorm, johnny blaze, Marvel Comics, midnight sons, monsters unleashed, occult, Satana, son of satan, spirits of vengeance, superheroes, Supernatural, Victor Gischler

Spirits of Vengeance #5 Review: A Satisfying Finale for a Troubled Series

The time for the covenant is now. The Archangel Michael and the Archdemon Beleth are now meeting. The Devil mocks Satana and Daimon for even trying to stop it. On Earth, the two offspring of Satan, Ghost Rider, and Blade must stop Hell from overtaking Earth. Ghost Rider is the key to stopping Beleth and Necrodamus, Blade accompanies Blaze, and Daimon and Satana must hold off the demons that would halt our heroes. The finale to Spirits of Vengeance is here.

And that finale is actually pretty satisfying. This miniseries has been pushing me back and forth on whether or not it's worth the time of the reader, and it sticks the landing just enough to be worth a read.

As is often the case with padded-out stories like this, it will probably be even better read as a graphic novel collection, but I don't find myself at this conclusion wishing I had just done that instead.

The showdown between Ghost Rider and Necrodamus is pretty cool. Razan shows up again and makes a bit of mess of things. She even gets a Lord of the Rings-esque Nazgul flying fell beast stead. Daimon goes full Hellstorm. All of this looks damn cool thanks to David Baldeon and Andres Mossa's artwork in this finale.

Without spoiling anything, the ending itself does lack a sense of permanence, which does feel like it was banking on this getting a follow-up series. In any case, it makes the ending slightly less satisfying, even though the Archangel Michael actually delivers a decent parting speech. The speech — well, it actually makes this story make a little more sense. It's also just passive enough so that you can feel like Michael isn't really an active ally of the Spirits of Vengeance. It's a weird balance, but I feel like it's a good one to strike for a comic like this.

Going back to Baldeon and Mossa's work, it's more cohesive here than it's been in the rest of the series. That's not to say it's been outright bad at any point in the rest of Spirits of Vengeance; it's just that there are more panels here that work than in the previous four installments. Plus, they get really creative with the set-dressing for the covenant meeting. Also, Ghost Rider gets a lot of really cool "hell yeah" moments.

Spirits of Vengeance #5 is a solid ending to a troubled series. It would probably still read far better as a collected graphic novel, but I've come to the end of the series feeling that it's more good than bad. This comic gets a recommendation, and you should definitely feel free to check it out. If you've not been following it so far, then check out the collected edition when it comes out.

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