Cutting Edge: The Devil’s Mirror #1 is published by Titan Comics, written by Francesco Dimitri, art by Mario Alberti, translated by Marc Bourbon-Crook, and letters by Jessica Burton. The game is afoot. With their previous task completed, what remains of the team must now acquire a one of a kind mirror while a world-renowned thief chases after the same target.
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While the pursuit of the Devil’s Mirror is the crux of this story, there is a noticeably strong secondary plot exploring the team’s most mysterious member, Delroy. With lots of questions swirling around his person, Stella makes it her business to know what she can about this partner that apparently does not exist. What she finds won’t necessarily be pretty, but perhaps the most interesting thing about her discoveries will be what they tell us about her. Writer Dimitri delivers some great character scenes throughout this story, especially where this subplot is concerned, building out the core group nicely. This greatly strengthens this book, as the cast’s lack of personality was one of the things that held back the first story arc.
And though all this character delving does a great job of adding depth to the narrative, the primary focus of Cutting Edge: The Devil’s Mirror #1 is the heist. And I must say, this much more focused objective serves as another vast improvement over the previous story. Whereas The Siren’s Song spent a significant amount of time with the team simply trying to figure out what exactly they needed to do, this story goes right into how they will do it. Having a much more direct task for the team to apply their genius to provides a much more entertaining and smooth running narrative. Sporting loads of sleek confidence, the team puts together a capper worthy of the best heist movies.
The final aspect of Cutting Edge: The Devil’s Mirror #1’s narrative is the first clue to Leviathan’s reasons for this globe-hopping life or death scavenger hunt are. While not too much is given away, it hints at bigger things than I expected, and I am certainly piqued to see where it leads.
Alberti’s art delivers all the cool heist moments and interesting character development of the story with skill, poise, and a stylish coating of European fashion. As the characters always deliver an air of confidence, and their looks always scream ultra-rich, so too does the posh skyscraper where their target is nestled away. Any more glitz or glamour would break the visual side of this story. As it is, Alberti stops just shy of gaudiness.
The letter work here does a commendable job guiding the reader through this story. While there are a couple of points that required a second read through to get right, these moments always coincided with some unconventional panel layouts within the story. I can’t say where the blame falls, but they are few enough to barely hinder the experience.
When all is said and done, Cutting Edge: The Devil’s Mirror #1 delivers a striking improvement over the previous storyline. With the character-building coming on strong, coupled with a far less muddled main story, this entry into the series really raises the bar for what this creative team can bring to a book.
Cutting Edge: The Devil’s Mirror #1 is available now, wherever comics are sold.
Cutting Edge: The Devil’s Mirror #1
TL;DR
When all is said and done, Cutting Edge: The Devil’s Mirror #1 delivers a striking improvement over the previous storyline. With the character-building coming on strong, coupled with a far less muddled main story, this entry into the series really raises the bar for what this creative team can bring to a book.
