Azrael #7 : Fallen Angel:7 The Curse Writer : Dennis O'Neil Penciller : Barry Kitson Inker : James Pascoe Colourist : Demetrius Bassoukos Seperations : Digital Hellfire Letterer : Ken Bruzenak Assistant Editor : Chuck Kim Editor : Archie Goodwin

Azrael, Brian and Lilhy travel out to the middle of the desert during a sandstorm and find themselves in a net dangling over a deep pit. Azrael gets out and finds himself amongst a collection of Animals in cages. Azrael meets the Grey Abbott who reveals to him the secrets of his creation. Learning that he had been surgically removed from his mothers womb, grown in a tank filled with animal fluids and tortured with electricity before he was born. The revelation that he was more than half animal sent him into a rage and he caused the death of the Azrael gestating in the Grey Abbott's lab, his brother. Realizing his deed Azrael became a feral creature.

Review :

Denny bring's about a startling revelation this is possibly one of the most disturbing origins of any character being published by DC. We see more of the extent to which Azrael's powers go, his strength is extremely great. Azrael tosses around huge statues, banks of equipment and tears the Grey Abbott's cybernetic arm out of it's socket. Denny doesn't try to express Azrael's strength through dialogue but through actions.

Barry uses Denny's script and pulls off a wonderful feat. By paralleling the pose of the Feral Azrael of centuries ago with that of the current Azrael he tells us that Jean-Paul is a: going to be a very effective Azrael b: hopelessly lost to feral bestiality. This also meshes well with Lilhy's previous prediction that Azrael is cursed a prediction that comes true.

Rant :

Cool. Very Cool. Fallen Angel is an epic story it completely contradicts every thing that's been done before with new ongoing series. Azrael's origin was not told in issue one, no, readers had to wait half a year to get the skinny on what made Azrael what he was. Not only was this a great story, but every single issue had something happening in it, there was no let down and we can expect the momentum to be kept up.

One has to wonder what else is in Azrael's DNA. In all the Order's hundreds of years of existance might not they have stolen Martian or other Superhuman DNA? Azrael is really strong it's entirely possible.