Review: Demon Knights Vol. 1- Seven Against the Dark

Quick Summary

Pros: The story has plenty of exciting combat and cool magic. The concept behind the series is unique and interesting. The characters are fun and have a lot of potential.

Cons: The flow of the book is interrupted by backstories at inopportune moments and the pacing feels off in other places.

Overall: The first volume in this series shows a lot of potential but doesn’t capitalize on all of it quite yet. The story here is exciting and the characters and concepts powering it forward are all really great. However, some storytelling problem hamper the narrative and prevent it from being as entertaining as it could have been. Readers intrigued by the concept behind this book or who want to see a mainstream comic book’s take on sword and sorcery should consider reading this collection.

Story

Demon Knights Vol. 1: Seven Against the Dark, by Paul Cornell, is a decent introduction to a series with plenty of potential. The book opens up a world of sword and sorcery taking place long before the majority of the titles in the DC Universe. This world centers around epic battles between a horde of powerful villains and a newly assembled team of misfit heroes. The resulting battle is exciting and allows readers to become acquainted with these unique and compelling characters. However, the narrative also suffers from significant storytelling problems and even gets a bit frustrating at points. In the end, this is a solid introduction but we’ll have to see how the next volume turns out before saying whether this series is truly worth it or not.

(spoilers start here)

The story in Seven Against the Dark ends up feeling pretty average. At times, it is thrilling and, at times, it has exciting levels of action. There are also moments that feel unexpected and twists that I ended up really enjoying. For example, Vandal Savage’s double-double cross is a unique glimpse into his lack of loyalty and total commitment to victory.

What brings this down is the growing pains that Seven Against the Dark goes through as the first volume in the Demon Knights series. Characters, motivations, and histories are all introduced in a rapid-fire succession that is hard to understand at first glance. There are also times where backstories and flashbacks interrupt the flow of the action and completely throw off the book’s pacing. Hopefully, with some of this in the past, the story in the next volume will be more instantly appealing.

Luckily, the concepts surrounding this story are far more positive. The comic’s core concept is a unique blend between sword and sorcery-style fantasy with the approach of a mainstream comic book. This creates a book with an infrequently seen approach to magic and combat but that contains characters fans may recognize. As a whole, the entire concept stands out well among other mainstream books.

In addition, the characters in Seven Against the Dark are entertaining as individuals and as members of a team. Each of the titular “Seven” have a range of unique emotions and motivations driving them forward. This gives the readers plenty of opportunities to find a character they can connect with and also simply makes the story more interesting. The characters also have entertaining interactions among each other and appear as if they could form a truly interesting team as this series progresses.

(spoilers end here)

Art

The artwork in Seven Against the Dark suits the tone of the story and manage to look alright in most places but, ultimately, feels a bit unremarkable in the end. Diogenes Neves provides detailed work that contains the gritty pencils one would expect from a violent take on medieval times. This makes the fighting seem more dramatic and makes the condition of the heroes obvious. There are also a few unique pages that really manage to stand out, such as the flashbacks in chapter four. However, there are also a number of pages that just feel lackluster and some places where a lack of detail is more noticeable than one would want. Hopefully, future volumes clean things up a bit because, like the story, the artwork in this series definitely has some potential.

Continuity

Demon Knights Vol. 1: Seven Against the Dark starts the Demon Knights New 52 series. This means that this is the first volume in a brand new continuity, so there are no references to previous books or specific character histories.

The story started here is continued in Demon Knights Vol. 2: The Avalon Trap (Review).