Can Stanley strike a bargain with the devil?
Creative Staff:
Story: Cullen Bunn
Art: Fran Galan
Letterer: El Torres
What They Say:
After an exorcism gone wrong, down-on-his-luck schlub Stanley finds he’s retained all of the demon’s supernatural powers and positions himself the leader of an insane worldwide cult—only to find himself pissing off the demons of hell. Now Stanley heads to Hell itself to determine whether or not he should keep these powers of the devil or remove them and go back to his boring life.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The embarrassment of riches continues as one of the newest Cullen Bunn series hits its finale here, though it lacks the word “end” at the end, leaving me hope we might revisit it again some day. Cullen Bunn has a knack for either picking or lucking out who he ends up working with and the team here definitely comes together wonderfully to produce a great-looking book In general, having Fran Galan just meant it was a must-read book. Galan’s had some great style for as long as I can remember seeing their work and it really delivers here in the violence, the detail, and just the kind of raw emotion that it feeds at times.
With things becoming clearer in the previous installment about what’s going on and how Stanley and his team are now being targeted by those from Hell, they do realize there’s only one real option here. And that is to strike some kind of bargain with the dark lord himself. None of them want to live their lives being targeted and Stanley knows he can’t actually win against the ultimate big bad, though he’s able to hold off some of the lower ones. But the reality is that it’s just a bad situation. So they end up getting Zed bringing in some help to transport them to some place that’s… hell-adjacent, which will allow them to get in touch with the big boss themselves. It’s a comical trip in a way and everyone coming along is definitely a delight. That they choose a strip club not only makes sense as the way to get through but that it’s what the guys always choose is no surprise. I mean, this or the DMV? Go figure.
The meeting itself is a lot of fun because his team is definitely nervous and we get elements like his girlfriend being hit on or Zed being mocked in how he’ll never be what he was before. With Satan himself, which is played rather amusingly in a puppeteering kind of way, he attempts to draw out Stanley’s power but I really liked that it can’t happen. There’s almost an impasse of sorts going on here that results in both sides having to compromise a little and really come to a deal. It’s not heavily negotiated or anything, but it unfolds well where there’s some really sharp dialogue that works here and we see how Stanley is more than happy to keep working for the devil in a way, taking notes for his work. It lends itself to a solid “first block” kind of ending but also presenting the potential for more storytelling in the future, which I hope there is.
In Summary:
I really liked this series overall as Cullen Bunn delivered some really engaging writing and a creative way to approach the whole thing. It definitely made for a fun experience to read and it does, as said, leave me wanting more of it. Fran Galan was able to take it to the next level with their artwork and brought out something with a really great and distinctive look to the characters. Especially here in this issue with the demons and the like. It’s got a great color design that helped in that regard as well. Overall, this is a fantastic team that I hope reunites if not for more of this but for another project to play with as they’re definitely well-suited with the end result.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: November 3rd, 2021
MSRP: $3.99