The Devolution of the storyline and conclusion to a genre piece hurts Devolution.
Creative Staff:
Story: Rick Remender
Art: Jonathan Wayshak
Colors: Jordan Boyd
Letterer: Rus Wooton
What They Say:
Every living creature on Earth has been devolved – the evolutionary clock turned back, reverting all life to odd mutations and prehistoric incarnations. The cities of man are little more than bloody territories ruthlessly dominated by tribal Neanderthals ruling from the backs of mammoths, packs of saber-toothed tigers, and giant man-eating insects. Raja, one of the few remaining “Still Sapien” humans, heads to San Francisco to find the antidote for the world-changing DVO-8 viral agent. But to cross the wasteland, she’ll have to convince the last pocket of humanity to join her quest… and survive the Nazi hillbillies that rule them through fear!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Devolution sends its hero Raja to find the serum in a post-apocalyptic world where humans have devolved into a neanderthal state. This serum cures a virus that spread throughout the world attempting to cure humans of its brutish tendencies. If Raja can find the location and spread the serum to the world, there may be hope in rescuing the human race from its self-destruction. Rick Remender and Jonathan Wayshak in Devolution asks you to immerse yourself in this world where humans regress to cave people where the only hope is a regular human who can cure them of a disease that devolved them. However, I just do not think the story, nor the readers, truly buys the ask from Devolution to embrace the story especially its denouement.
Devolution is brutal. The visual narrative shows no mercy as it depicts the savagery of a devolved area. With lots of blood, gore, and violence, Wayshak clearly communicates the chaos going on in Raja’s world, showing that slight mercy is not tolerated. It leaves nothing to the imagination at first, until it hits that what Wayshak and Remender show in Devolution is only the nicer aspects. It especially hits home when on page Raja sees men hanging for crimes deemed punishable by death by Gil, the de facto leader of a devolved human colony.
An interesting aspect introduced in the beginning is religion’s impact on humans. Makes the case that religion, and the particular aspect of humanity shows an evolved sense of being. Trying to eradicate that aspect harms the humanity of a person. To me, it makes a good argument to how religion isn’t necessarily an indication of regression. Rather human nature, in general, can prime itself for regression by its hubris and try to use the belief in a god as a way to cure and advance humanity is selfish and ignorant. That narrative constantly plays itself as we see Raja go through her encounters.
While Devolution is a sci-fi story, certain elements just seems too out of bounds. The devolved animals that take a kaiju aspect seem more dialed in than actually a part of the world. The serum from the premise seemed to target humans and had a justifiable aspect, and in reality, may have worked with dolphins and primates. To see large spiders and mosquitos affected by the serum feels like a narrative stretch that just doesn’t seem comfortable within the story complex. It feels like a genre mash-up instead not fully followed up.
Devolution’s plot feels generic and often times trips on itself. We have hero go and wander through various perils trying to find a serum. We get the same tropes peppered in with other heroes, anti-heroes, etc trying to accompany the hero to cure humanity of the virus. What makes it harder to enjoy is the pacing of the story. Often times it feels like it jumps from panel to panel withholding its explanation and the time to explain the actions it transpires sans the beginning. It makes for a jarring reading experience that at times makes you feel like something is missing.
The ending feels like a sour note compounding the story’s issue. While many series have approached this same ending, many fail to justify why the conclusion makes sense. They come off with the thought that humans are bad, and leave it at that. Devolution is no exception to this rule as the ending fails to justify why humans are bad, but then leaves intact other humans that are justified in leaving. The technical aspects only handwave the issue, not acknowledging what makes the other humans who survived the events better. In fact, it raises a slew of new questions that range from “Why stop here?” to “Why couldn’t there be other alternatives?” and makes the conclusion even more unsatisfying.
In Summary:
Post-apocalyptic comics can be a tough sell since many people create series in this genre and good series can be lost in the shuffle of other series. Devolution is one of those stories that unfortunately clogs up the pipeline. Its sometimes erratic storytelling and unsettling ending don’t give much hope to those who would read the series to completion. Rather, it only helps to exemplify the averageness of the rest of the work when it presents itself well. Maybe more time and planning would have made the series a better product. As it stands, it’s just another comic to pass by when looking for better series.
Grade: C-
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