Creative Staff:
Story: Brain Buccellato
Art: Hayden Sherman
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
What They Say:
The walls close in around the world’s newest (and perhaps only) chicken-inspired vigilante as the Russian mob turns up the heat. But that’s cool because Mitchell Moss (thinks he) has nothing to lose. He may be a flightless bird in a devil suit, but he still has a surprise up his wing. Beware the ball pit of DEATH!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Chicken Devil was definitely pretty crazy in what it was trying to do in its first two issues and while I liked it, it also left me just cringing a bit. Admittedly, with the way gun violence plays out in America today it makes for a lot of story fodder that can tell interesting stories so I’m game for checking them out. But at the same time knowing what’s all around us can certainly make you on edge a bit. Similar to the second issue, the third installment here continues to smooth things out a bit which makes for a more engaging read. Hayden Sherman has wowed me on several titles in the last few years so getting a chance to see more of his kinetic artwork definitely excites me. With this property, it feels like with the story and artwork it’s like Crank meets Falling Down with a chicken mask thrown in for good measure.
The death of Antonio at the hands of Luka’s gang has Mitchell in an amusing position here where he’s hiding in the closet in the chicken suit. Of course, the two killers aren’t stupid enough to ignore it and know that he’s hiding in it and it doesn’t take much for him to be tossed in the back of the car to be taken in to find out where Gregor is. Mitchell, for his part, is close to being done playing this game as we’ve seen and his escape from the clutches of the gang plays out in a deadly and dangerous way. But what it does for Mitchell is tor cement that he has to go to a dark place to deal with this. The phone conversation he has with his mother is a comical bit of deniability but the reality is that with his loss and what’s come since all he can do is seek revenge. This is why we get a fully suited-up warzone-style Chicken Devil.
While we get a minor diversion with the cops that will bring them into the finale next issue, a lot of what we get here is Mitchell just embracing what he must do. It’s fairly standard stuff in concept as he loads up on weapons and sets a trap for Luka and his gang, who are partying at an indoor trampoline park with booze and blow. It’s amusing to see them all as lit as they are but bouncing around and getting worse as Mitchell launches his plans because there’s no future left for him. His only way forward is to eliminate those that took everything from him and spend the remainder of his life safe in the knowledge that he brought real justice to them. It’s fun watching the plan unfold even if it doesn’t do all that it needs to do and then to see just how wound-up Mitchell gets as he knows there’s more to do – albeit with a last-page twist.
In Summary:
Chicken Devil sets up for the finale pretty well here with a lot of action and Mitchell being pushed to a point of no return where he goes all-in. It’s what you want to see unfold at this point and to watch as he handles how it goes south on him at times. Mitchell’s mostly lucked into how things have unfolded through the right place at the right time kind of thing but the results are the same in the end. He’s got a lot of blood on his hands that he’s trying to collect on because of what was taken from him. The story definitely moves forward at a good clip here as it should and Sherman’s artwork delivers time and time again with great visuals, especially as Mitchell looks like the Punisher at one point, just with that damn chicken mask on his head.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: December 22nd, 2021
MSRP: $4.99