Battlemouth

In 2007 Top Cow Productions, introduced an idea for a “pilot season” contest.
Top Cow comics decided to do six one-shot comics. Each comic features a known character from the Top Cow Universe. The idea is to take a character that is not currently featured in their own title and give them a chance to earn that distinction. Top Cow has taken the idea of how network television determines its new series. Each one-shot is like a “pilot” episode that will lay the groundwork for the character and to show the potential of that character featured in their own title.
When all six titles have been released, Top Cow will open up the voting to the fans. Readers will be able to determine which two characters deserve to continue their adventure. In all likely hood, the writer will remain and continue the series. It will be determined whether or not the artist will be available to stay on or not
It was a great success bringing in something close to 4 million votes with Cyblade and Velocity being chosen as winners that first year. Three years later Pilot Season is underway again…with some small differences. The largest and most important change to pilot season this year involves the creators of the titles. Five titles will be released (as opposed to the usual 6), all written by Image’s Robert Kirkman (Battle Pope, The Walking Dead) with cover art by Top Cow’s Mark Silvestri. The books began releasing in December of ‘09 with MurdererIssue #1 as the first release of the contest. This past week, Wednesday brought the release of the second title from Robert Kirkman, Demonic issue #1

Scott is a good guy. He and his wife, Jamie, together with their daughter, Lucy, make up a pretty pleasant little family. But no matter how good things look on the outside, everyone has secrets, and Scott is no different.

Issue #1 of Demonic doesn’t go on an on with a whole bunch of back story, it delves right into the meat of whats going on and has you flipping pages like it’s an old standard. Obviously, as this is a “Pilot Season” title, the first issues have to pack enough punch to get readers to want more! If you have read any of Kirkman’s other work, you know that he does not shy away from violence or violent imagery in his stories. Not that he is running around making Garth Ennis type story lines…but hey, there is a reason both Kirkman and Ennis are two of my favorite writers.

As I said before, these pilot season books don’t have time for a lot of back story, so within a page, Scott is revealing his secret…
At night he must go out and deliver souls to a demon that constantly taunts him. If he doesn’t satiate the demon then there are consequences…dire consequences. Scott is not a killer, he is not a bad guy, but when pushed between a rock and a hard place, he will do what has to be done to take care of those he loves.
So even after reading that short synopsis, I have to say that it doesn’t sound all that special, even to me. The end of the book brings for some astounding realizations, however. When Scott returns to his day job he discovers his secret just got a little more difficult to hide. It could be a good story…it certainly had enough blood to keep me entertained…

To be honest, I am not sure I see this book running for very long if it were to be a winner. Not that it is a bad story, but I feel like there isn’t going to be anywhere to go with the story after a few issues. It would at least be interesting to see how Kirkman avoids some of the plot holes he has planted for Demonic as well as some of the back-story; like where Scott got the rad mask and the kitchen knives…and what the hell is a nice guy doing kicking it with a demon in the first place? I am reminded of Spawn, only with less awesome art and less scruples. I recommend you go out and take a look at it and decide for yourself, for me, Murderer is still in the lead, but we have 4 more one-shots to come! Huzzah, Pilot Season!

Next up for Pilot Season- Stealth