I always love getting a new piece of the Hunter Rose saga. Wagner appears to have settled in on doing Black & White & Red for Hunter's adventure, following the B&W&R mini series and the re-issue of the original Graphic Novel re-colored in the same palette.
Wagner doesn't disappoint in Behold the Devil, but I'm not convinced that black and white and red are the best choice -- Wagner's color work in the Devil by the Deed (which appeared as a back-up story in Mage) was incredible. I'll be frank: I miss Wagner's color in Grendel and in the most recent Mage story. The airbrush backgrounds and watercolor foregrounds were unique and so well-crafted that I felt Wagner was actually playing the caretaker to the story. That caring gave them weight that I don't find as often in the work he doesn't color himself.
That said, I still rate the artwork in Behold the Devil highly. The splashes of red -- as you may imagine, mostly for blood and wine -- is effective and stark -- and works in this book.
The story itself concentrates on pages that Hunter ripped from his journal, and is the only story of Hunter's saga so far that shows him unsure and vulnerable.
Highly recommended.
