“Don’t Count Your Devils…”
Creative Staff:
Story: Brain Buccellato
Art: Mattia Monaco
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
What They Say:
The world’s FIRST (and perhaps only) hot chicken sandwich-inspired vigilante is BACK…and this time he’s not flocking around!
See Mitchell Moss thrust in the middle of a new gang war! Watch Mitch battle his family as they actively thwart his efforts to keep them safe! And let out an exasperated SIGH alongside Mitch as he is forced into teaming up with the kill-crazy bad cops!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The original four-issue Chicken Devil series was something that was a weird and crazy property that largely embraced throughout a kind of stupidly lucky bumbling lead who should be dead multiple times over, which made for a lot of fun. 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. Hayden Sherman handled the artwork on that series but for this one we get Mattia Monaco taking it on and it definitely works well in delivering a similar but different experience. With this property, it feels like with the story and artwork it’s again like Crank meets Falling Down with a chicken mask thrown in for good measure.
The fallout from that series is in full play here and there’s not much in the way of action or bloodshed, though we do get some. A lot of it is establishing what’s to come and why things are going to be even crazier this time around. Mitch has been helped by the powers that be to survive this because they do see the usefulness in both him and what has been accomplished. He just needs to keep his head down and not tell anybody what’s going on. The problem is that keeping that secret from his wife means she knows he’s lying about things – on top of nearly shooting all of them – and his home life is just the worst right now. Mitch is trying to figure out how to get through things and hoping to see it turnaround with Denise, but with the kids being really problematic in a lot of ways and just the sense of what could happen next out there in the world has him on edge, which doesn’t help him with his wife at all.
The problem for Mitch is that while he’s basically keeping a low profile, things are going on between the Russians and the biker bang. And one of those tagged in all of this, Shovelhead, eventually comes to call on Mitch to ensure his silence. This is good and bad because Mitch had spent earlier in the day telling his wife the truth only for her to not believe him, which hurt, and now he gets to show her the biker’s dead body in the garage. Which in turn brings in the cops that are basically watching him and covering up his trail because of how useful he’s been. And that now has them deciding that one “chicken devil” wasn”t enough and that the three of them are going to don the suits, possibly metaphorically, and finishing the job that was started with all of these problematic criminals. It’s comical in seeing how it comes together and how Denise reacts as I can imagine her life now getting pretty nuts.
In Summary:
I really enjoyed the first series for how over the top it was at times and that Mitch basically just pratfalls his way into survival more often than not. This series looks to take it to its next logical step if things like jailtime aren’t being considered as the coverup is going to allow for more insanity. Which I can believe as well. There’s a lot of fun here in seeing how Mitch is coping with trying to get his family back on track, which isn’t easy since they weren’t exactly super tight before, while also worrying about the bigger picture of things that could happen from the bloodshed. That it’s going to go bigger and crazier isn’t a surprise but this at least makes a twisted kind of sense and I’m in it to see how Denise reacts to events more than anything else.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: October 12th, 2022
MSRP: $4.99
