After an excellent third issue, Post Malone’s Big Rig #4 drives into comic shops this week to wreak havoc and make us question if Hell does exist. The double-sized fourth issue has our heroes at their lowest point yet, while The Six Petals, a secret sect of The Knights Templar, aim to make a deal with the devil!
If you thought the previous issues were over the top, prepare yourself for the fourth issue. The issue, however, starts quietly but quickly ramps up as the Six Petals attempt to break into the Trucker’s big rig, and he metes out maximum punishment with great violence. It appears Trucker’s hand-to-hand combat is pretty darn good. The buildup leads to a chapter title reveal, titled “Drag Noose,” and a transition to Batu and Edda being served up as bait to the female demon who has been seeking their heads since the first issue.
Enter a second big rig, only it’s made from the bodies of the damned!
Truly ramping up the blockbuster lunacy of things, Malone and Adrian Wassel reveal a rig to rival Trucker’s, and they even dare to have the two trucks go at each other. They ram each other, they strike each other with weapons – it’s Fast and the Furious ridiculousness, only far more hellish. Simply put, it’s silly, but so over-the-top it’s a ton of fun.
In between the rigs fighting each other is the leader of the Six Petals, who stays true to his mission even when his own men become demons. That allows artist Nathan Gooden to cut away to fighting as the rigs get in position to do their thing against one another. The damage the hell rig takes is particularly well drawn, with its body breaking organically. The use of red is nicely done too, with the hell rig turning red, and any major blood splatter getting the color, the rest of the issue cast in whites, grays, and blacks.
A bit of blood mixes things up.
Credit: Vault
Although the issue is technically two issues combined, it is one continuous action sequence between the rigs. That’s a slight change from the last issue, which was more distinctly different between chapters.
The action can mostly sustain your interest, although there’s a sequence where Edda draws the Six Petals leader into a kind of trap that’s a little too convenient for its own good. Another minor gripe is that sometimes the art depicting the rigs driving around or colliding isn’t all that interesting. That’s not too surprising; these are rather slow vehicles and bulky at that, even if they’re moving impossibly fast for their size, thanks to the power of heaven and hell.
Outside of this being a lengthy action scene, the last few pages adequately set up the stakes and dangers to come. The final page has a wicked twist that’s a bit gory, and it’s safe to say Hell is not done with Trucker and his friends. Throw in a wild two-page cliffhanger that seems to suggest the Big Rig universe will only grow from here, and there’s a lot ot look forward to.
Big Rig #4 is pure grindhouse excess—the comic-book equivalent of flooring the gas pedal and never letting up. Post Malone, Adrian Wassel, and Nathan Gooden fuse myth, metal, and mayhem into a double-length brawl that’s as gleefully ridiculous as it is beautifully rendered. Though the nonstop action can blur together, the sheer audacity of dueling demon trucks and Templar zealots makes it impossible to look away. It’s the loudest, most unapologetically wild entry in the series yet, and by the final page, one thing’s clear: the road to Hell still has miles to burn.
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