DAEMON HUNTERS: Hymn for the Dead, Vol. 1

This first of three volumes launches a convoluted fantasy epic set in an ancient era in which fallen angel Lucifer plots to plunge the world into an age of darkness. The key to Lucifer's plan is using the vast mystical energies of four newborn angels whose essences reside in the bodies of four infants. It will be 18 years before the angels' powers reach fruition. Meanwhile, Sartre Largness, a dragoon of "the Church," adopts a wide-eyed orphan and trains him in the formidable martial and mystical skills of the Giant Hill Clan. The lad matures into Michael Largness, a wandering demon slayer of inhuman deadliness who fights on the side of the greater good. All this information is imparted in a listless, 63-page, two-part prologue that is a festival of talking heads and flailing-limbed histrionics. Once the story proper lurches to a start, we find our hero and his two companions encountering an old man and a boy being attacked by wolves, which leads to a violent supernatural confrontation. The competent artwork blends anime, manhwa and Western influences in its mix of mythological and Christian iconography. Although this work is mildly entertaining, it doesn't stand out from the pack of similar manga. (Oct.)