Review: Revolutionary War – Dark Angel / Author: Keiron Gillen / Artist: Dietrich Simon / Publisher: Marvel / Release Date: Out Now

Dark Angel storms in with the second instalment of the Revolutionary War and fans aren’t likely to be disappointed. We switch to the aftermath of Captain Britain’s humbling defeat as Dark Angel slowly returns to consciousness. She’s aware, in a wibbly-wobbly cosmic type of way, that something has gone painfully wrong (the big hole in the wall and ravaged landscape something of a gigantic giveaway in our opinion, but hey-ho).

So, using her psychocybermetric doohicky she starts to piece together the good Captain’s ass-handing ,with a supporting lady called Doris turning up for light entertainment along the way. However, before she can get to the bottom of Captain Britain’s bottom slapping (see what we did there) she has to work. And work for Dark Angel means popping down to Hell to pay for her father’s sins in a debt she can’t ever work off. Aren’t they the worst? Here we’re provided with a little recap of who and what Dark Angel is, the fact that her father was a member of the nefarious Mys-Tech board (a bunch of immortal techno-wizards) and signed all his sins over to his daughter. The bastard.

In a surreal encounter in Mephisto’s bedroom, our heroine is charged with cutting loose the Devil’s nightly sins. This apparently involves lots of sharp pointy things and blood. Lots and lots of blood. Mephisto, shortly afterwards, gives Dark Angel her to-do list and a day’s exhausting work of slaying demon uprisings soon follows. She’s left with little power to search for Captain Britain by the time it’s clocking out time.

Cue an invasion of psyco-wraiths and the proverbial really hits the fan. Things heat up fast with a return of old enemies until Dark Angel is left with a truly terrible choice to make. All of which, one gets the impression, was part of Mephisto’s plan. Bwah-ha-ha.

This is a strong comeback for Dark Angel, a series that in its original run lasted only eleven issues and was entitled Hell’s Angel for the first six. The name had to be changed following a lawsuit from the Hell’s Angel gang. The issue was resolved out of court with a sizeable cash payment to the Ronald MacDonald charity, apparently, but we digress.

For the second outing in the return of Marvel UK’s old-school heroes, the writing and story remains tight, well-plotted and good fun. The art, unfortunately, falls down in places, with a sense of being rushed towards the end. Still, strong ideas and good visuals carry this title through to its gasp-out-loud ending. Well worth the read.