Lucky Devil #2

Lucky Devil #2

Dark Horse Comics 2021

Written by Cullen Bunn

Illustrated by Fran Galán

Lettered by El Torres

After an exorcism gone wrong, down-on-his-luck schlub Stanley finds he's retained all of the demon's supernatural abilities and begins to use his new powers to build a cult. Meanwhile, he finds himself hunted down by the legions of Hell and demons wanting to reclaim Stanley's newfound powers.

This is quite different from anything we are seeing elsewhere and that’s great because it continues to showcase how original Cullen is and his ideas. Also I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen this idea done before in any medium which excites the heck out of me. I am also incredibly impressed with the overall pacing of the story and how much I love seeing the events unfold as they do so that I can see how this can easily be a four issue series. I don’t know if this is a franchise but it definitely has that one and done feel but then I do so love to be surprised and Cullen is more than adept at surprising me.

I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter really brings who they are to the forefront. As we see them encounter new moments we see the changes in their personalities happen seemingly naturally. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story we are taken to a place where one man’s desire for revenge takes us places even he wasn’t aware he was willing to go.

The way that this is being structured and how we see the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen is pretty magnificent to see. What I love about this is that the layers open up new avenues for exploration as well as keep others open for further exploration and different directions within those avenues and all of this continues to add depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably achieved.

There is something absolutely, utterly and completely delightful about the interiors here. The linework we see is sensational and the way it works with the varying weights and techniques creates a great unique style. There are moments that are completely gross but it doesn’t go overboard and that alone is impressive because we get the intent but not the gore. The way we see the composition within the panels bringing out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is nicely achieved. When we see backgrounds being utilised it makes me want to see more of them throughout. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work really shows a great understanding of colour and how it works.

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I really like how we see this being told. From nobody to somebody and without his being quiet or shy about what he can do he’s attracting all kinds of attention and not in a good way either. I can already see the cracks in concrete forming and spitting wider from here. What all this does is make me excited to see what is still yet to come and how he’s going to handle this when, even with all this newfound power, he cannot even handle himself. With some strong interesting writing and some sharp and decisive characterisation wrapped up in these very stylised interiors this is definitely a highlight of my weekly reading.