The Deviant, written by James Tynion IV with art by Joshua Hixson, is the most unsettling comic book currently on stands. Part of that is the careful and intricate plotting by Tynion. A larger part is the eerie, airy panel layout and design by Hixson. And even with an issue that peeks a ray of sun through the snowstorm of terror like The Deviant #7, that sense of being off-balance while reading the book is omnipresent.
That’s purposeful, of course. The whole idea of the book is to put us, the reader, in the head of men who may be serial killers, may be misunderstood, or may be both. It’s about the feeling of being “other” to society taken to the umpteenth degree, a deviant in either name or deed. By placing us in that position, we understand the constant dread one feels when one stands outside of what is considered normal — even if that feeling is entirely generated internally.
As for the plot? If you haven’t been reading the book, it starts by following a comic book writer named Michael who is a not-so-veiled stand-in for Tynion. The writer has been obsessed with the Deviant Killer, a man who dressed up in a strange, featureless mask and Santa Claus outfit, and killed children decades earlier. Up for debate is whether the man in jail for these crimes — Randall — is the Deviant Killer, or if he was just targeted because he is queer. As Michael interviews Randall, the Deviant Killer begins to kill again… And Michael may be the one behind it.
This latest issue finds Michael’s partner Derek trying to clear his beloved’s name by interviewing Randall as well. And as with previous issues, it will make you waffle about whether Randall, Michael, or neither are killers; or perhaps someone else is out there doing these deeds. It also leads to an incredibly powerful, punch-in-the-gut moment two-thirds of the way through the issue that will make you tear up… It should be harder to get invested in any of these characters given how many times Tynion has pulled the rug out in seven short issues. But damn if I’m not Charlie Brown and Tynion is Lucy with the football here. You care for all of these people, even when one or more of them may spend time chopping up young boys.
There’s more on Tynion’s mind this issue though, than continually digging into the Venn diagram between being queer and other purported “deviations.” While the police have taken the heat in previous issues, here we get to see more of the True Crime Industrial Complex through a woman who makes reproductions of the Deviant Killer’s mask. Hixson has a field day drawing her wide-eyed stare and rictus smile upon being presented with the real killer’s mask, and it makes for the most deviant behavior in the book so far. Whereas everyone else has had complex inner lives and deserves the benefit of the doubt, this woman — and perhaps, the book suggests, all those who make a profit off murder — deserve the actual title of deviant.
There are still two issues to go, and a twist towards the end here once again throws everything we know into doubt. But so far, no book is digging deeper and more powerfully into what part of being a deviant is thrust on us by ourselves, and what part is labeled by society than The Deviant. Do not miss it.
The Deviant #7 is in stores everywhere now from Image Comics.
