The Lucky Devils #8 // Review
A couple of demons are in a locker room in Hell when they spot someone falling out of the hellevator. The guy doesn’t look like a demon at all. He looks...mortal. That’s not possible, though, is it? It’s against the rules for human to use the hellevator. And anyway...humans can’t breathe the air in Hell. If he was going to be there for very long, he wouldn’t be alive for a whole lot longer. He’s in big trouble in The Lucky Devils #8. Writer Charles Soule and artist Ryan Browne reach the penultimate issue in their strangely interesting series.
The guy’s name is Cam. He’s being guided by his own personal demon. In order for Cam to breathe in hell, he’s got to wear something that looks like a respirator. On closer inspection, it’s a surly, little demon that doesn’t seem to enjoy being strapped to his face. Cam doesn’t enjoy being in Hell, but it’s not because of eternal torture and misery. It’s...culture shock. No sinners. No brimstone. There DOES appear to be a fiery torture pit, but it’s really something much worse: it’s the sight of a major disaster right in the middle of Hell...
It’s taken a while for Soule to generate enough momentum for Lucky Devils to gain its own specific personality on the page. There have been so many visions of Hell over the years that have attempted to turn it on its head in weird ways. It’s going to take any narrative more than a little bit of time to reveal something truly new. That’s precisely what Soule seems to be achieving towards the end of the series. The relationship between Cam and his demon Collar is a lot of fun. The specific dynamics of Hell have gained enough flavor to deliver their own personality.
Browne has fun with a classy, metropolitan Hell complete with demons walking around in suits carrying briefcases. It’s a very lived-in kind of a world that strikes the page with a dark and pleasantly dreary sense of humor. There’s a lot going on on the page that feels like it’s a casual visitation by a story that might be staggeringly interesting...but is, in fact, just a throwaway detail in the background of a panel. It would be interesting to see Browne given more of an open-ended chance to explore the visual idiosyncrasies of Soule’s hell.
The Collar/Cam relationship is a lot of fun. Not everything else in the extended ensemble works quite as well as those two, but it’s a fun exploration into weird satire as Collar’s influence grows by the end of the issue. The mortal Starr and her demon Rake are an interesting combination, but the path that Soule is leading them down seems oddly dull considering Starr IS trying to have her devil exorcised this issue. One would think that would be a bit more interesting. Perhaps it’s a bit too cliche for a devil/mortal relationship. Perhaps that’s what makes the Collar/Cam interaction seem so fun.
