“Walking on Devilshells”
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. Mattia Monaco was a strong addition to the series as he took on the art duties for this run 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.
With a few months between issues, it’s still fairly easy to reconnect with it and get into the groove. Especially since Mitch is basically trying to keep things together but so much is working against him. The family side of things is his big priority as he’s insisting everyone has their phones have the find my feature on, and his wife is totally on board after what happened in the first issue. Naturally, their oldest daughter is the most hurt by it while their younger son pokes the hornet’s nest. And it’s no surprise that she turns it off once away from the house and that’s just going to make things a lot worse for her and her boyfriend as we see from the end page. But what we get is a family that is slowly coming together as the reality is setting in with the parents, though Mitch’s wife is still frustrated that he’s involved with the killer cops.
Said cops are making sure to use Mitch so they can kill off more of the bad guys while playing the threat against his family as a way to utilize him. They’ve certainly boosted up their weapon capability and brought on a bit more protection with kevlar and the like but now they’re using Mitch to deal with a new meeting that’s happening between a biker group and some white nationalists. Mitch really does his best to get out of it, painting himself as a liability for them, but his style and flustered nature is exactly what they need to set the stage for infiltrating the meeting and finding out how many people are actually in there. It’s almost comical how weirdly it plays out and that Mitch gets put on sentry duty after taking out the first couple of them. The killer cops are pretty whack themselves, especially with all the movie quotes, but it highlights how this can keep moving forward until it blows up in everyone’s faces.
In Summary:
Chicken Devils is moving the story from the first series forward pretty well, though this one is mostly focused on Mitch being dragged into another mission with the cops. The more interesting material comes from the family side, especially with how things are going so badly with the daughter and her boyfriend by the end, but also the kind of conflict that exists between Mitch and his wife over everything that’s happened. She’s at least aware of the danger itself and what’s involved but is understandably frustrated with how it seems to keep escalating instead of settling down and drawing off. It’s a fun book and a solid addition to the property overall.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: January 18th, 2023
MSRP: $4.99
