AWA Studios has released a preview of their upcoming series Archangel 8 ahead of the series’ official release on March 18th. Written by Michael Moreci and featuring art by C.P. Smith, Archangel 8 appears to be a modern crime drama featuring the biblical archangels– if the preview pages are any indication, the series looks a lot like Garth Ennis’ Punisher run mixed with 2010’s Legion.

From AWA Studios: In a world beyond the sight of mortals, Heaven and Hell wage war for the souls of mankind. Principal among God’s legion are seven archangels written about in religious texts for millennia. But there is an eighth archangel, known only from passing allusions in Apocrypha, who operates under a different code. Fighting without God’s sanction, he faces the enemy on his own terms, and shows just how bad good can be. 

It seems like the synopsis does a bit of a disservice to the setting– based on the description alone, I definitely wouldn’t have guessed this would be the gritty modern action story that the preview would have us believe. There’s also a trailer for the series in which Michael Moreci discusses the project, which you can find here. The “even god needs plausible deniability” tagline is strong, and it seems like Moreci really wants to dig into themes of redemption and atonement.

Despite being a bit difficult to nail down in terms of direction, Archangel 8 looks promising for fans of action horror and definitely sounds like the kind of premise that could get snapped up for a film adaptation. I can’t be the only one that sees a bit of Idris Elba in Gabriel’s design.