Review: Angela: Queen of Hel #1

Story:

“Stolen from ASGARD, exiled from HEVEN, and robbed of SERA, her greatest companion – ANGELA plunges into the depths of blackest HEL to save her friend…and once there, the lost princess of Asgard will carve out a realm of her very own. All hail ANGELA, THE NEW QUEEN OF HEL!”
Read more about it on Goodreads.

Review:

This starts at the end and then jumps around a bit. I’m not usually fond of this type of story telling but it works here. Probably because the title of the book is Angela: Queen of Hel so it’s not much of a spoiler when you open the first page and she’s sat on the throne. We know the destination it’s going to be the journey that’s interesting. That said there might just be a bit too much jumping around and you have to pay attention to if you’re in the just the flashback or the flashback of the flashback.

If you’re a new reader to Angela then all you need to know is Angela and Sera love each other. There’s a lot more back story but you don’t need to know about it for this issue. If you do want to know more then I suggest reading Angela: Asguard’s Assassin and skipping all the Original Sin stuff. And I recommend 1602: Witch Hunter Angela because it was one of the few spin offs of Secret Wars that was any good.

I like how in all her comic titles they name her profession. So far she’s been an assassin, a witch hunter and now the Queen of Hel. I look forward to what career she pursues next. It’ll be hard to top queen. Maybe she can be a goddess.

Out of the two main characters I think I like Sera better and I love her narration of this issue. She’s such a fun character and I think if she wasn’t there Angela wouldn’t be as likable. But she’s so much more than comic relief and she can hold her own in a fight. She’s got power and the cover shows this perfectly.

She sat on the arm of the throne with her hands glowing red while Angela lounges beside her. They both give off this formidable vibe. Angela doesn’t even need to be sat upright to be imposing or powerful. I love this cover. I want this cover as a poster.

The only criticism I have is that as the story jumps back and forth so does the art and it’s a bit jarring. Especially as the flash back art is so much more stunning than the art for the present which looks like standard super hero art and I’m not very fond of it. It doesn’t match the cover either where as the flash back art does.

If you liked the previous Angela series or you like all the Asguardian stuff you’ll like this. And even if you don’t like the story jumping backwards and forwards in this issue it still promises a good story to come.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Next Angela: Queen of Hel #2

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