Following hot on the heels of the explosive second issue, Raja and her new group of rebels escape the mayhem of the camp where she had been imprisoned. At long last Remender and Wayshak unleash full prehistoric destruction upon us. Flying through the wasteland in an old military helicopter we finally get back to the action outside the doors of Gil’s camp and what awaits is truly gruesome. Devolution #3 takes us back to the spirit of the first issue: mutated, prehistoric monsters rampaging through the ruins of American cities, waiting to eat every human in sight.
Devolution always kind of felt like a bored kid’s daydream played out in scribbles across a notebook, dreaming of big guys with guns shooting at dinosaurs from the back of a jeep or helicopter. It’s Xenozoic Tales meets Jurassic Park with a whole lot more violence and profanity packed in. My previous complaints were that this book was too derivative, too shallow, and not really exciting enough. I wanted to taste the zany world that Remender was trying to craft, and I wanted the characters to explore it as well. Issue #2 bogged us down with exposition about these ex-military thugs and their power hungry warlord boss, a trope we’ve seen many times before in stories like this. It lost momentum until the final scene where Raja and her crew blasted out via helicopter and headed for freedom. Now via the sky we get a glimpse at the horrifying world that Remender hasn’t shown us since the beginning of issue #1.
Giant spiders, mosquitos, ants, pterosaurs, and all sorts of gross looking fauna inhabit what used to be San Francisco. All of those things are sent out against the protagonists, as they blast their way out time and time again trying to find a safe place to rest on their way to find the cure to the Devo Virus. Devolution finally feels fun, because it should have been all along. I get it, the second issue was to set up how evil Gil is and build him up as the main villain, but it still felt like a slog. Now that that’s behind us the adventure can really start, there are a few more bodies for some gory kills that Wayshak really excels at depicting, and things feel like they are really moving along.
Devolution #3 puts this comic back on track, setting up perfectly for the finale. Let’s just say someone we spent a lot of time with in the second issue isn’t quite ready to give up the hunt. Gruesome, bloody, weird and wildly imaginative Remender’s prehistoric wasteland is a wild ride that you won’t want to miss. I’m glad my faith has been restored and perhaps reading this in trade form the entire run would’ve made more sense. Devolution still isn’t my favorite by Remender by a long shot, but at least it’s fun.
Score: 3/5
Devolution #3 Writer: Rick Remender Arist: Jonathan Wayshak Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment Price: $3.99 Release Date: 3/16/16 Format: Mini-Series; Print/Digital