the devil you don't know

Marvel's MAX line has a new addition: Dead of Night starring Devil Slayer (sounds like a glam heavy metal rock band).

let's just make one thing clear: it ain't your daddy's Devil Slayer (more recently seen in the Hawaiian Initiative - doing luaus and sensing portents of doom and showing Cloak how its done). 

no, in this tale, we have Iraqi vet named Danny Sylva going back for another tour of duty - once a soldier, as they say - to the disbelief and joy of his former buddies. in his case, it seems more like a homecoming.

Sylva has his reasons for going back, since he has nothing else to live for. alternative careers for ex-soldiers seemed in short supply with the tanking of the American economy, and the breakup with his fiancee Maria left him with charges of aggravated assault, drunkenness and disorderly conduct. his CO, Lt. Buckler leaves him with a semblance of something to hold on to - fighting for your comrade in arms, despite the presence of other less-than-honorable men from defense contractor Bloodstone, a Blackwater analogue (apparently, you can get blood from this stone). 

for those not in the know, Lt. Buckler is named after Rich Buckler, who created the Devil Slayer character back in 1977.

a fellow soldier, Wahl, has been kidnapped by jihadists, and a midnight call from an embedded journalist from the Daily Bugle (don't they call it the DB now?) puts Sylva and the team in an impromptu rescue mission. it doesn't go well. for example, Pvt. Miles Ochse, fresh out of boot camp and Sylva's seatmate on the plane back to Baghdad, gets his brains blown out rather quickly.

with his teammates dying alongside him, Sylva runs for cover in a room, he finds a lot more than he bargained for.

Danny Sylva ... Devil Slayer, get it?

just for informational purposes, Dead of Night is written by one Brian Keene, he who ushered a new age of zombie splatterfests with The Rising. i know of one friend who's gonna cream in his pants when he reads this. 

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Dead of Night: Devil Slayer #1