Dio: Holy Diver

“Holy Diver” by Dio features one of the most iconic metal album covers of all time as a demon throws a priest bound by chains into the sea.  It’s a great image that’s simultaneously fantastic, weird, and horrific at the same time.  You could argue that it’s also great because nothing about it is being explained, yet that’s what creators Steve Niles and Scott Hampton are trying to do with this new graphic novel.  It involves Father Emil Barrett, who rose up from a strict religious upbringing to be a man of great moral character.  So great is his moral character that he has undertaken a mission to bring the word of God to a reputedly heathen village on a remote island.  When he gets there, Father Emil finds that the nakedly cavorting villagers have their own god, a dragon named Abalon, and he finds that his task is now far more difficult and dangerous than he imagined.

Niles and Hampton give us a straightforward story about the intolerance of modern religion towards the old ways of the past.  I’d tell you not to go in expecting a story that gives us a favorable depiction of (what is obviously) Christianity, but if you’re like me and picked this up in part because Dio’s name was on the cover, then you probably already knew that.  So if you’ve come to read a story full of paganism, dragons, misguided priests and a lot of naked partying, then you’ve come to the right place.

Which is to say fans of the musician will likely be entertained by this.  Niles does a good job of setting out the story in a straightforward fashion and even tries at points to shake things up by injecting some uncertainty into the priest’s worldview.  (He also gets bonus points for sneaking in lyrics to Dio’s songs wherever he can in the story.)  Hampton’s painted style also does a good job of making the story’s grounded and supernatural elements feel like a part of the same medieval setting.  So while I can’t say that I feel that this story provided a wholly satisfying and necessary explanation of the story behind the “Holy Diver” cover, it was at least still enjoyable on its own terms.