Dante the DC Comic

While in Italy on a family vacation, I decided to go to a local comic stand and see what they had to offer; I'm a bit of a comic geek and I was interested in seeing what the difference between American and Italian comics would look like. My best find was issue #3 of WildStorm comic Dante's Inferno, which is actually an American comic. The fact that this comic had shown up, translated, in a little Tuscan town, just goes to show the relevance that Dante's work still carries even in today's Italian culture.

As it turns out, the Dante comics are based on the video game Dante's Inferno, which was released in 2010 by EA games. Because video games tend to make story-lines more action-packed, the plot therefore differs greatly from that of Dante's actual work: Beatrice's soul has been captured by Lucifer, who wants to marry her and make her Queen of the Damned. Back in Italy, skimming over the pages of the comic, you can imagine why the image of Satan and Beatrice kissing was more confusing to me than the Italian translation.

To be more specific, the comic version of Inferno was confusing to me because Beatrice played such a heavy role in it in the first place. As you can see from this excerpt, the comic is initially narrated by Beatrice, whereas Dante's Inferno is told entirely from Dante's point of view, with Beatrice speaking only in other people's retold memories (such as Virgil's in Canto 2). Beatrice is not an active character in Inferno; she is an implied promise of blessedness that won't be encountered until Paradiso. The comic and the video game purposefully twist her blessedness by Transforming her into Queen of the Damned, but that pretty much ruins Dante's original character. Dante the poet used Beatrice as a way of personifying Dante's desire for blessedness, whereas the video game/comic devalued Dante's pilgrimage, making Dante's love of Beatrice more important than his own spiritual salvation.

Despite the major plot divergence, I am happy that somebody made a comic of Dante's Inferno. The book is rich with imagery, and artist Diego Latorre used some gorgeous art in bringing Hell to life. I'm just hoping that someone else will create a comic that isn't linked to a video game, so the story can be accurately depicted and thus speak for itself.