Dante’s Inferno comes to DC Comics

Can video games actually be good mature comic properties? Very few have been able to in the past with World of Warcraft and the miniseries promoting Hellgate: London being the most notable exceptions. The sad truth about video game comics is they are often shameless promotion tools that end up showcasing the lack of overall story quality in the games that is often made up by graphics and gameplay fun, Gears of War being the prime example of a story so flimsy that a strong sneeze could burst through it but still considered great because of its gameplay mechanics.

But if there is anyone who can bring the classic epic poem turned video game, Dante’s Inferno, in to a quality comic read, it’s The Flickcast favorite Christos Gage, scribe of recent hit G.I. Joe: Cobra and his up and coming Absolution. DC Comics will be pairing him up with Incredible Hulk artist Diego Latorre. A first peek at the comic will be available this week at Comic-Con where EA will also be debuting the trailer for the upcoming Starz channel animated spin-off. Other than that, details have been slim about the comic project.

Dante’s Inferno will be coming out in the early part of 2010 for the XBox 360, Playstation 3, and the PSP and follow the events of Dante Alighieri’s epic poem, The Divine Comedy. The first of the three parts follows Dante as he and his companion Virgil descend through the nine layers of hell: limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, violence, heresy, fraud, and treachery. Dante and Virgin together face three large beasts, each representing the three types of sins represented by the layers of Hell.

The first five layers being self-indulgent, six and seven as the violent, and the malicious sins representing the eighth and ninth layer. It’s likely that some of the monstrous creatures seen in the screenshots may be these evil beasts and act as bosses in the game.

Check back at The Flickcast as more information for the game, the comic and the show becomes available.