There are a lot of different ways the final issue of The Deviant, a Christmas-infused slasher thriller from Image Comics, could have gone. Creators James Tynion IV and Joshua Hixson could have delivered an ambiguous ending that left the central, masked Santa Claus killer unknown. They could have ended with a disturbing darkness that left our heroes dead. Instead, not only is the mystery of the series wrapped up with a beautiful bow, they also delivered a sweet, sad, and ultimately earnest ending that makes sure The Deviant will be the perfectly devious Christmas present for years to come.
Spoilers past this point. In the finale of the series, we pick up pretty much right where we left off with the Slender Man meets Santa killer about to enter the bar where Derek is consulting with a friend, Josh, aiming to clear his boyfriend’s name of being the Deviant Killer. What follows could have been a grand guignol, but instead we’re presented with a master class in comic book tension. As the Deviant Killer stalks Derek and Josh, our FBI agent/detective Hall is slowly closing in on the answers to the mystery. And as he does, a snowstorm begins to pick up, expertly rendered by Hixson.
Though the chase and ultimate reveal of The Deviant Killer takes over the first half of the issue, the resolution is where the book shines. While the creepy killer was always going to be the draw for a series like this, the real meat of the book is the very idea of deviance: what is it, why are we drawn to it, and how is it thrust upon us? Are we deviant simply because society deems us thus? And how do the two poles of deviance, sublimating urges and indulging them, dovetail with each other?
Furthermore, thanks to essentially writing himself into the book as the main character, Michael Schmitz, we see Tynion grappling with his own role as a comic book writer in terms of bringing these ideas to light. How do we reconcile the lizard brain excitement in seeing a masked killer chop someone up with the basic idea that obviously, that is horrifying and wrong? What is the writer’s role in that? The audience’s?
It’s also to the credit of the book that it feels eminently satisfying in the finale without providing any easy answers. There’s a resolution to the Deviant Killer mystery (well, most of it), but Tynion and Hixson aren’t going to cure society’s tangling embrace of deviance in nine issues of a comic book. It’s enough to raise those questions, and like “Michael Schmitz” explore them further on your own time.
Often the phrase “hold a mirror up to society” involves the implication of some sort of guilt. What Tynion posits here instead is: what if we just take a look, and see what we see?
The Deviant #9 Rating:
The Deviant #9 Official Synopsis:
Fifty years ago, circumstantial evidence was enough to convict the man locked behind bars as the original Deviant Killer. Now, as history threatens to repeat itself, Derek will stop at nothing to clear his boyfriend’s name. Because Derek knows the truth behind the new Deviant Killer…and the new Deviant Killer knows that Derek knows.
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