PURGATORI MUST DIE #3 – Comic Review

PURGATORI MUST DIE #3, from Dynamite Comics on March 1st, 2023, turns Purgatori’s unscheduled stopover in the Garden of Eden into a fight for survival.

The Details

• Written by: Ray Fawkes
• Art by: Alvaro Sarraseca
• Colors by: Salvatore Aiala
• Letters by: Tom Napolitano
• Cover art by: Collette Turner (cover A)
• Comic Rating: Teen+
• Cover price: $3.99
• Release date: March 1, 2023

Is It Good?

Credit where credit is due, PURGATORI MUST DIE #3 goes to some strange and unexpected places. Ray Fawkes clearly isn’t afraid to get irreverent with Biblical lore and mythology, but take heart. You won’t find any offensive or blasphemous content inside. Just Purgatori’s comical lack of decorum.

The bright spot of this issue is Fawkes’s sense of comedic timing. Don’t expect laugh-out-loud jokes. Instead, Purgatori and the collective of Dynamite characters hunting her engage in a steady stream of snarky smack talk that fits the characters’ personalities to a tee and makes for an endlessly amusing read.

Fawkes’s script centers on Purgatori and Darwish looking for a (temporary) sanctuary in the Garden of Eden. The Garden lives up to the hype, so kudos to Fawkes and the art team for showing perfection as well as describing the intangible senses, such as touch and smell, to give readers the full picture of just how perfect the Garden is.

Of course, the sanctuary is short-lived (reader through to the next section for details), and the humor of the characters’ personalities is balanced against an existential threat of possibly Biblical proportions. In other words, readers who look past the humor will notice the stakes have risen dramatically.

Sarraseca and Aiala’s art is good to very good. Dynamite has developed a taste for using design illustrators instead of traditional comic artists, so the visual style may not be to everyone’s liking. Still, this is a better example of adapting illustration to the comic medium, and the art team gets the job done.

Keep scrolling for a closer look at the covers, or Click Here to jump right to the story description with some spoilers.

What’s It About?

[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]

Check out our PURGATORI MUST DIE #2 review to find out how and why Purgatori wound up in the Garden of Eden.

We begin with Darwish giving Purgatori the grand tour of the Garden of Eden, where everything is supposed to be perfect. Surprisingly, everything is perfect in the Garden until Purgatori finds a black trail of death from a mauled woodland creature. The two refugees soon find the Garden has a third visitor who isn’t aligned with God’s good graces.

Meanwhile, the different hunting parties start to converge. Lilith and her minions pick up the scent with Lady Hel’s input. Evil Ernie follows Smiley right to the seat of Paradise. And the Sacred Six make a beeline right to Purgatori’s location. We conclude the issue with a devourer, sibling rivalry, and Paradise Lost.

Keep scrolling for a closer look at preview images of the internal pages, or Click Here to jump right to the score.

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