Returning Mephisto to his former glory
"One More Day", what? That's right; Kieron GIllen is taking Mephisto back to the character's grim, scary roots and far, far away from being a convenient deus ex machina device with an unhealthy obsession for breaking up peoples' marriages. This whole issue ignores this volume's main character and focuses instead on Marvel's demon king, and it is an absolute delight.
For those looking for an action packed comic, they need to look elsewhere. Then again, the entire run of this title thus far has been a lot of talk and manipulation without much action (though it's all been so very pretty to look at). So action-holics should know by now this is a more thoughtful book and to be expecting something else. For indeed, this issue is still a great deal of talk. But talk with a very interesting group of characters we rarely get to see having such candid discussions, and that is a very nice treat. The angle of the past few issues of this title, going at lengths to define politics and alliances in the underworlds and dream realms of various godly pantheons has been fascinating, and this issue kicks all of that into high gear with Mephisto's jolly "road trip" to godly locales. Mephisto is handled gloriously by Kieron Gillen; so much so that I for one can put his involvement in those Spider-Man travesties out of my mind and love the character again.
Guest artist Richard Elson, who I am completely unfamiliar with, does decent work here. The look of the issue is nowhere near as polished or flashy as regular artist Doug Braithwaite, but it is however a lot brighter, with gets across the grandiose scope of some of this issue's locations a lot better whereas the regular art team would probably have wound up making the place seem a lot more grim than it needed to be. Elson also grants Mephisto a great deal of expression, which I highly appreciate. I'd be happy to see this artist get a regular monthly assignment as he seems quite adept with giving his characters a theatrical flourish.
I suppose next issue returns the spotlight to Loki, this title's protagonist. And while I've been greatly enjoying Loki's adventures in this title... I'm going to be craving some more of Mephisto now.
