A new mission as the team becomes a trio.
Creative Staff:
Story: Max Bemis
Art: Eryk Donovan
Colors: Cris Peter
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
What They Say:
Turns out, you can’t escape love triangles, even in the afterlife. As Bill and Sharon find common ground, Slim starts to feel that what could have been Paradise is now looking more like Paradise Lost. Desperate to not lose the afterlife family he’s built, Slim takes Bill on a mission into the darkest corner of existence: a vulnerable conversation between two men with eight million years of emotional baggage.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With a bit of a gap between installments, reconnecting with Heavy isn’t too hard since it was coming into it second storyline at the start. But it’s at that point you’re less certain of everything and it’s a very exposition-heavy installment at that, which Max Bemis handles pretty well overall even if it could use a few more names being tossed out. Eryk Donovan gave it a really great distinctive look with the character designs but also in being able to really get creative with some of the alternate worlds and timelines and their designs, both for people in general but also the settings. It really worked well to make things feel familiar but otherworldly in all the right ways.
The premise for this one is intriguing but I’ll admit that I ended up a bit shaky in it because it’s trying to go in this big and interesting direction but I’m unsure how much I’m not remembering from prior issues. The first half largely focuses on Kyle and Sharon as they spend time together with the “thing” that operates above the council that runs things as we see how Kyle has manipulated the systems in order to really maintain and have power here. It’s weird and silly and amusingly sexual but we also get some good background on Sharon that helps to flesh her out more so that we understand her past. Not that we needed a ton of it as she’s pretty straightforward, but we see how her position in all of this as a Heavy isn’t quite like the others and that Kyle is definitely looking at the really big picture here.
With Bill and Slim, they get to deal with their own things by going to what basically qualifies as “hell” at this point as Slim has been sent down there for a mission. That as Bill off doing his own thing, ending up finding a version of Moore there as well that gets complicated, and all that comes after some heavy talk about heaven, hell, the deal, and how Lucifer and God ended up in the positions that they’re in. It’s all interesting stuff as I’ve read a lot of variations of it in other books over the years, but I love seeing the trick that Slim tries to pull toward the end of it by going after Bill and basically inviting him into his and Sharon’s bed. The two have such a really intense relationship and each has the same with Sharon that in some ways that really does make a lot of sense but it also makes it clear why it wouldn’t work because of how problematic it would be.
In Summary:
I continue to enjoy Heavy a lot but this installment just felt like it didn’t connect quite as strongly for me. I like the concepts being played with and just how big everything can go as this has so many different things it can explore at this point. There’s a great tension between the characters, a certain kind of weirdness that can really be delved into that I’m completely unsure of where it’s all going to go, at least beyond Bill just losing it and killing everyone to bring it to a close. Bemis is pretty dialogue-heavy here and it works well and Donovan manages to make it exciting and fun to read as it goes through everything.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Vault Comics | Amazon
Release Date: August 4th, 2020
MSRP: $3.99