Written by Martin Chuzz
Drawn by Claudia Balboni
Published by Convinct Comics

This is an interesting little book, billed as a romantic comedy. Denzel is a demon from Hell, charged finding and getting people to sell their souls to Satan. While Holly is an angel from Heaven, charged with finding and converting 100 souls for God. They’re both “working” in New York. From the outset, it seems like things are going well for both of them. We see Denzel in a strip club convincing two women to sell their souls to Satan for $6660 in cash. And then we see Holly in a hospital, convincing a murdering drug dealer to repent his sins just before he dies, which is number 99 for her.

But when they each appear before their bosses for their “performance reviews”, things don’t go so well for Denzel. His Demon superior is unimpressed with Denzel’s conversion numbers (since, by default, everyone automatically goes to Hell when they die unless they sincerely repent first) and is about to demote him back to Purgatory, but Denzel begs for one more chance. He tasked with trying to convert a young woman named Lexie, who is a devout Christian. Coincidentally, Holly has just also been assigned to watch over Lexie by her Angel superior. Heaven is worried that Lexie is in danger of being corrupted when she sets out to find her “sinful” older sister Jane. So it looks like Lexie will literally have an Angel and a Devil trying to influence her.

This is just a set-up issue, and although the two main character haven’t met yet, I think it lays the foundation for the premise of this series very well. We get insight into both Denzel and Holly and what motivates them, which makes the interest in seeing what happens when they do might even greater. I must note that this issue’s portrayal of “Heaven” and the angels is probably not shown in the best light. Holly, the pious Angel insults a homeless man whose asking for change, saying she won’t give him anything until he repents. And one of things her superior praises her for is in convincing more people to oppose same-sex marriage and, in fact, being gay is one of the “sins” that Jane is condemned for (at least I hope that’s meant to be funny…). And the artwork is decent, if a bit average.

Overall I’d grade this issue a B, and recommend checking it out for yourself.

SOUL MATES #1