REVIEW: The Deviant #5 (of 9)

If you’re into thrillers and horror stories, “The Deviant” might be up your alley. Reading this story makes me feel weird, not because it’s bad but because it’s incredibly creepy. It has the vibe of watching seria killer videos on tiktok in the dead of night in your room alone with nothing but your phone screen illuminating your face. At any moment the horrors in the pages could turn into your reality and whilst I do not particularly love that kind of feeling I can’t discredit how well it achieves real spine tingling terror.

The issue starts rather weird with two kids looking at gay pornography on the web and checking out some information on a guy that commited murder in their neighborhood. Things have a tinge childish sexual exploration with something much darker looming in the corners. After the kids mess around with the gay porn and the serial killer, they venture out to the killers’ actual house and that’s where things really take a turn for the macabre.

It is definetetely a horror story with elements of drama and some small action elements. It is more Silence of the Lamb and Human Centipede than Saw or Shutter Island. There is also a really weird and creepy vibe throughout the whole thing. I’m trying my best to describe it, but I’m finding it rather hard to put it into words. I guess the best way to put the eerines that everything gives off, is by comparing it to something many of us could relate to. If you’ve ever watched House of Cards, then you have very likely felt this type of creepiness in the monologues that Francis Underwood would give up. Like rapey, power trippy, psychopath vibes. If Epstein wrote a comic this would probably be the sort of vibe you’d get when reading his comic. While this is not a good thing in the grand scheme of things, because honestly, I don’t come to comics for this sort of feeling. I truly understand that when it comes to storytelling, achieving this level of unease using words and pictures is a masterful display of skill and talent. The art itself is alright, it’s nothing too crazy and the designs (both characters and environments) are rather plain and simple, this actually helps the overall story because it avoids distracting you with flashy art and sucks you in deeper and deeper into the story. The same can be said for the lettering, there is not much going on in terms of artistic creativity.Things are plain and they are creepy, they are simple but almost realistic in a way. In this story every brush stroke serves as a vehicle for the story and that is all that matters here. In all honesty within the medium of comics, something so often seen as children’s entertainment or at the most, artistic fantasy fulfillment; this sort of storytelling is quite innovative. I find myself coming out of the story feeling a little dirty, something that I’ve only ever felt watching things like How to get away with murder, or House of cards. The type of dirty you feel when you find your parents having sex, or end up kissing your best friends girlfriend. That type of dirty that makes you feel like you shouldn’t have seen, done or been there at that time. This scores big points for the story, but for me as a reader I don’t think I’d read more of it. Not because it’s bad, but because it gives me the creeps.

This is going to be a great story that just so happens to have picked the medium of comics to be told in. It’s not my type of story, it’s not the sort of experience I look for when reading comics, but there is no doubt in my mind that if you’re the sort of person that enjoy crime podcasts, serial killer documentaries and real horror movies, this book will be for you. This was a very intersting read for me, I did not have fun and yet I come out understanding that comics are much more than action packed romps of artistic escapism.

Writing: 5 Stars Art: 4 Stars Colors: 4 Stars

Overall: 4 Stars

Written by: James Tynion IV Illustrated and Colored by: Joshua Hixson Lettering by: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

Cover art by: Joshua Hixson

Variant Covers by: Anand Rk & David Romero Published by: Image Comics

Reviewed by Antonio “Mabs”