Lucky Devils #6 // Review
Cam has a big show coming-up. His Philosopher’s Tone call-in show has reached a topic that he’s been getting ready to do for years. Everyone in the booth is really excited about it until he starts talking about demons like they’re real things. Odd that he would have done something like that without the influence of his own personal demon, who happened to have stepped-out at the time. Things continue to unravel in Lucky Devils #6. Writer Charles Soule and artist Ryan Browne continues a dual-layered interpersonal drama that circulates quite cleverly between Hell and Chicago.
Meanwhile, shoulder devils Collar and Rake are hanging out in a strip club in hell when a senior-level demon shows-up to talk. Mentions in passing that they’re still planning for a ninth funnel. It’s crazy, but the population of the Earth is about to reach 9 billion. It’s going to take a little while, but the more advanced demons are already making plans for what’s going to happen. Rake’s person made a bit of a mistake in giving-in to anger and now she’s single again. This is going to make things a bit more unstable for HER, which could endanger at least some of the influence that makes her such a strong mortal to be paired with.
Soule’s dual-layered story continues to do interesting things. The workplace drama for the demons is rooted in the emotional lives of the humans. Their emotions have a profound impact on office politics in hell, which further affect the humans and the cycle continues. It’s such an insidiously simple dynamic between humans and demons. It feels totally natural and instinctive on every level. The soap opera-style format of the series continues to draw quite a bit of energy and momentum from the cleverly-constructed interplay between demon and human.
Browne’s art delivers its dramatic impact in a place that feels a bit homogenous. Chicago kinda looks like Hell, which kinda looks like Chicago. There doesn’t seem to be a very strong visual distinction between the commonplace and the supernatural. This is not to say that the realm of the demon and the realm of the human are identical. They’re both quite distinct. There’s something missing in the framing, though. It’s all placed on the page with a similar energy. It’s possible that the demon workplace just doesn’t have enough to distinguish it as being something otherworldly.
There’s quite a bit of potential in a long-running Lucky Devils series. The characters--both demon and human--who populate the ensemble all seem really, really interesting and complex. There’s something to be said about morality and determinism in the center of the series that could be a hell of a lot of fun to get into under the right circumstances. Just a bit more of a focus on the visual aspects of the provocative premise would make the series feel remarkably interesting on every level. It would just be a matter of finding the visual hook that could a bit more clearly delineate the world of Hell from the world of Chicago.
