The Lucky Devils #3 kicks off in a unique fashion. Rather than start with demons Rake and Collar exploring new ways to destabilize the structure of Hell, it flashes back to their very first meeting. Since it’s hell, you’d think this meeting would take place in a pit where the screams of the dammed echo for all eternity, or somewhere else that’d conjure up the most horrifying images one could imagine. But keeping in line with how unorthodox these devils are, it turns out that they met in a underground poetry jam.
This unorthodox meeting is just another example of how Charles Soule and Ryan Browne delight in zigging where other stories about Hell might zag, and it continues in the lead up to the present day. As the next stage of their plan to ruin Hell, Rake and Collar up their game, taking on other sins in an attempt to push their respective humans Starr and Cam further down the path of influence. But how much is too much?
It’s here that I finally caught on to the reason The Lucky Devils has nine issues: each one is for the different circles of Hell and the sins they represent. More to the point, each issue tackles a specific sin in its own way – if the first was Limbo, which represented Cam and Starr moving through their lives in a fog, and the second was Lust, where they desired more, Gluttony asks how much they can take. Collar even references it when Cam keeps referring to him as a figment of his imagination: “When it comes to humans and their appetite for self-delusion, enough is never enough.”
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It’s certainly the motto that Browne has applied to his artwork, especially with how much detail he packs into the pages. Devils of all shapes and sizes fill the flashback, as well as the streets of Hell. One of the best pages features Collar literally hopping out of Hell and running across the borders of the page, until he come face to face with Cam; Browne is clearly having the time of his life drawing this, and manages to one up it with a literal elevator ride through Hell that’s packed full of some scintillating, sinful images. All of it is rended in vibrant, varying shades of color, with some hilariously placed sound effects to boot.
Equally as big are Soule’s efforts to branch out the lives of his human characters, especially where Starr is concerned. Readers will not only get to meet her family, but also come away with some hefty theological questions to consider since her father is a pastor. With Cam, things escalate when Rake pulls him into a situation that might shake up the plan she and Collar have created; this is made clear by the arrival of a new figure at issue’s end, hinting that Soule only plans to delve deeper into Hell’s hiearchy.
The Lucky Devils #3 completes the “first act” of this miniseries, but shakes up the story in a way that has lasting reprecussions. Knowing Soule and Browne’s previous collaborations, it’s safe to say that readers are in for a wild ride.
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