Dante (One-Shot) Review

Written By Justin D Williams 

Dante was a family man with a wife and a young daughter—and also a top assassin working for an international crime syndicate. For two decades, he worked hard to keep those two lives separate. Manipulated into thinking he could retire with the syndicate's blessing, Dante is betrayed. While fighting to save himself, he accidentally kills a young Asian boy—an act which changes him forever. Cursed, and covered with otherworldly tattoos, Dante embarks on a journey to uncover the source of this supernatural affliction, and to save his family.

Dante is overall a story about choices, consequences and writing the wrongs you have done in life. Reading the 48 page one shot I was really immersed into Dante world and story. Dante is a very dark character that views being an assassin as just another day at the office. He goes on his assignment and returns to his family like nothing has happen. Through the course of his years he has been able to hide his alternate life and keep his life private. However when he is getting ready to retire things is starting to catch up with him. The story moves in a very fast pace and does little to developed the characters outside of the protagonist. The first issue makes the protagonist Dante a little bit one dimensional. He’s a badass killer, doesn’t care about anybody but his family but there currently aren’t any layers in the first half of the book. The book really picks up when Dante accidentally kills a young Asian Boy. It’s with this moment and act where the heart of the theme of righting your wrongs comes into the play. The book takes us into the past where we see some vicious choices Dante has done. For the sake of spoilers I won’t mention what he’s done. I will say that character will probably kill his own mother if he was paid the right price. I like how the choices of Dante starts to come back to haunt him and come full circle. Everything that Dante has done as a hitman now will be his undoing or if he corrects it his salvation. The ending of the book leaves me hungry for more to see what else he has done in the past. There is a little bit of mystery of who took his family, what is the origin and deal with the tattoos and how many sins does he have to correct to go back to his normal life. These questions raised in the book are intriguing and I hope in future issues it gets explored.

The artwork is beautifully drawn and crafted. Attention to detail really shines in this book and the action set pieces are cool to look at. Dante killing skills are on full display with style and flare. Overall the book is an interesting read with a very fast pace. The lack of characterization with some side characters will hopefully be explored in future issues. The heart of this story is Dante’s choices and the consequences that come with. Pick it up and see for yourself.

Final Grade 4/5 Stars