John Walker wants to lead Wilson Fisk’s supervillain team, the Thunderbolts, hoping to keep them in line – but does he have what it take to keep monsters from doing what they do best? Devil’s Reign: Villains for Hire #2, written by Clay McLeod Chapman, penciled by Manuel Garcia, inked by Lorenzo Ruggiero, and colored by Dono Sánchez-Almara and Fer Sifuentes-Sujo and lettered by VC’s Joe Sabino.
Every once in a while I’ll be reading a new series’ second, third, or even fourth issue and think, “This should have been issue one.” This issue here is exactly that, because as much as I enjoyed reading it last month, I am now all in.
Sure, yes, I get that you want to establish your team of lesser known villains for those who might not know who they are. Give them a little space to show off their vicious tendencies, their powers, and how easily they’re willing to slip out of control and let things get very bloody, very quickly. But I really don’t think a full issue was needed to warrant it, especially given that everything you need to know about this series is laid out pretty clearly here in issue two.
Also, if the opening page for this issue had been the opener for the series it would have absolutely been my favorite thing to have come from this entire event, and I’m counting Superior Four! This opening page is a delight, with everyone’s least favorite Captain America deadpan staring down the page as tendrils (both electric and symbiotic), fists and weapons from our Thunderbolts team crowd around him. “I hear you’re looking for new recruits,” he says. “Sign me up.”
Mayor Fisk is reluctant to hire USAgent at first – presumably because people who volunteer are demonstrating too much free will for his liking – but Walker lays out the situation pretty clearly. Fisk has hired some bad people, and sooner or later, those bad people are going to step out of line in very public ways, which is pretty detrimental for a man running an election campaign. Walker might not have been the guy Fisk wanted, but he’s the guy who’s there (that job qualification alone has gotten me many, many a paying gig), so whoop, he’s hired!
Another improvement on this issue over last issue is that we have a single inker, as opposed to a team of five. It’s understandable, given the messes comics events can be, but it’s really helped give the book a more cohesive look, allowing the artwork to sing just as loudly as it was meant to. There’s still a roughness to it, an ugliness that utterly charms me, it’s all just better. Dramatic moments land better, the darkness and violence inherent in every threat looms larger. The action itself isn’t as clear cut as I like it, but the moments land really well.
The colors are washed out, and stormy, heightening that pervasive sense that when people like these Thunderbolts are allowed to roam free, the world’s a darker place for it. It’s an atmosphere that brings me back to Dark Reign, and no lie, I would love to see this creative team’s take on the Dark Avengers. As is, however, there’s some great work done with what we’ve got.
This is definitely John Walker’s issue. It turns out he’s got some motivations of his own, he’s working with unnamed people to find evidence to bring Fisk down. It’s unlikely he will, but in the meantime he’s got his hands full beating down these villains to show ‘em who’s boss, and then having to trust they have his back when a purple lady with similar powers to the Purple Man and his children drives a crowd into a frenzy.
Don’t get me wrong, these are all terrible people, Walker included, but there’s something that warms my heart about villains forced to work together to stay alive in the face of the overwhelming. Rhino, especially, gets a hero’s moment, which is all the more heartening given how many times he’s shown us he’s got a good heart under all that rhino-y mass.
Devil’s Reign: Villains for Hire continues to be one of the funnest things to come out of this event. I’m enjoying it enough to want a full series to spin out from this, but for now? This limited series is doing great. I have no idea where it plans to go from here, but I’m definitely along for the ride.
Armaan is obsessed with the way stories are told. From video games to theater, TTRPGs to comics, he has written for, and about, them all. He will not stop, actually; believe us, we've tried.
