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Story Background
Angels of Armageddon - AoA to regular readers - revolves around young people who are avatars of some of the characters/creatures in the Roman Catholic Bible's Book of Revelations. The story doesn't aim to follow the events/symbolisms in the Book strictly, though the parallels (and lack thereof) have generated significant discussion.
These young avatars are born at around the same time on Earth to fulfill separate destinies. They all have the power to influence the hearts, minds and bodies of ordinary humans subliminally through music. With this power they combat each other and even much stronger forces, in order to ultimately take control of humanity's future.
AoA is a series that runs in the Unbelievers Unlimited or UU (Double-U to some) magazine, a Manila-based semi-underground monthly publication with very limited circulation. UU makes it a point to publish only fiction with controversial religious, sexual, sociological and political themes; more than one reviewer has referred to it as the "Heavy Metal" of the Philippines.
(Critics however declare that there is nothing new or free-thinking about the magazine at all, and that the readership is set apart from the rest of the 98% literate population of the country simply by being able to afford the expensive subscription cost.)
It has been said - and rightly so - that AoA is one of the most juvenile titles of the UU. Nonetheless, it garnered a loyal following among young readers, whom their parents say shouldn't be reading the UU in the first place.
Cris Cartero, former EIC of UU, has said that there have been buyout offers from other (young reader) magazines for AoA, but our mysterious author, D. Mandapat, has refused them all.
AoA has been running since close to the founding of the UU, six years ago, as the brainchild of a small group of dropout literary enthusiasts/occultists, the notorious "Circle of Six." AoA has been classified as a "serialized novel," though even after six years, no actual "novel" has come out.
Each installment is illustrated by different artists from UU, who adopt different styles, giving AoA a certain comic book appeal. Some artists, notably Severa Van Sant of the nightmarish Melody Magic Kitty Parfait debut, have opted to draw full-page manga-style illustrations for specific chapters.
There are speculations that should AoA be compiled, the story will be divided into three books, according to the three "arcs" in which the story has so far been told. I've taken the liberty of assigning names to the arcs, though no official names have been released.
