Lucifer Fawkes: Orcus Ex Machina

    (Rorschach, 2004)
™ and © 2004 Rorschach Entertainment

Lucifer Fawkes is a hard-drinking, foulmouthed crime fighter called a Keeper, because he protects the world from the supernatural. Writer Ulf Imwiehe melds Batman, Doctor Strange, and Wolverine into an anti–hero who would sooner drink away his problems than face them. Unfortunately, the story loses its way in all the unnecessary bad language and adult themes. Imwiehe wants to have his cake and eat it, too: traditional super-heroics mixed with profanity, and the two rarely mix well.

It also doesn’t help that Fawkes looks great on Brett Weldele’s stunning cover but looks silly as drawn by Ryan Sergeant in interior pages. Maybe it’s just that his headpiece looks like Batman’s, drawn badly.

Imwiehe spends the first several pages with Fawkes changing the channel, revealing much about this dystopian world and evoking Frank Miller’s Dark Knight stories in the process.

Fawkes creator Brian Meredith would be wise in the future to drop the F-bombs and focus on telling straight-ahead supernatural heroic tales. It’s a neat concept; it just needs maturity.

— Steve Horton
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#1

May, 2004
Cover Price: $3.50
2 copies available from $2.34 		Ulf ImwieheRyan Sergeant