Originally published on Patreon
This week saw the release of the newly collected together Batman Urban Legends Azrael story, repackaged as a new one-shot. This was a good re-introduction to the character, but it's here, with the start of the new mini-series Sword of Azrael that the character really comes to life.
Since the events of the one-shot Jean-Paul has moved to a small island monastery in Europe, hoping to get away from the violence and killing in Gotham, as well as hoping to distance himself from Azrael, the murderous personality within him.
Whilst his life on the island has been peaceful, and he seems to have found a decent home for himself, that becomes disrupted when a young woman arrives on the island claiming that she needs help from Azrael. Whilst Jean-Paul is trying to fight this, it looks like fate has other plans for him when assailants arrive on the island looking for the woman.
These people, dressed very much like knights, are also led by Vengeance, the clone daughter of Bane. When Azrael faces off against them it's revealed that Vengeance is working for the Knights Templar, who want the woman back as she, like Azrael, is another trained killer who believes an angel resides within her. The final panels show the woman's programming activating, and her becoming a threat.
I really liked the story choices that Dan Watters made here, and whilst it feels like the next natural step to the character after the one-shot, it also feels like a lot of the issues I had with that story have been ironed out. This was a much more enjoyable read, with less philosophising (though it still does have some), and more of a look at Jean-Paul himself as a person.
The story also works a lot better here, and whilst I should have expected it to carry on the new Knights Templar story thread dropped in the last issue it wasn't obvious that's where it was going to be going, and I liked that small surprise. The inclusion of Vengeance was also great, thanks to the history that Azrael has with her father from his time as Batman. It was like we were getting the new, revitalised version of Azrael alongside the new Bane, and it was cool.
I also thought that the artwork on this issue was nice, and there were some great moments that stood out. I particularly liked the image of Azrael in Jean-Paul's mind, where he's more bible accurate. It was a surprise, but worked really well.
I've never been a huge fan of Azrael before, and he's always been a character that I've not really thought much of, but this is a really good and interesting first issue, and I can see myself enjoying this series if it continues like this.
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