2 out of 5

“Ecological thriller” – unless that’s totally your bag – probably gives you the same kind of hesitations it does me, since I feel like I’ve rarely read or seen anything that hedges above ‘okay’ in that genre, with most of it hitting below that.  But Heaven’s Devils seems to avoid not only the generally obnoxious dramaturgy found in that scene (y’know, seals in oil kind of stuff), but also the standard character tropes and plot conceits, starting off pretty strongly with an interesting mix of story snapshots: destitute magician Alan getting a wake up call to get back to magic-ing; militant, kill-happy environmentalists who will kill with a chainsaw and then recycle the remaining gas; a hot-headed NCID agent, going against the grain (so hot-headed!) to stop a potential outbreak; and in our last pages, a mysterious man and a mysterious box.

If you read the second issue in isolation, things continue to hold up: Alan cuts his hair and goes to investigate a virus in Mexico, pretty flagrantly playing his magic dude card to not get infected, but with a bravado that’s fun to read.  Our hot-head – Agent Morgan – comes to look at the same, and remains skeptical of Alan’s reasons for involvement.  Meanwhile some bad dudes are dispatched with a photo of our magician and some untranslated Spanish which we assume means “something something kill him.”

But let’s say you’re not reading the issue in isolation, and you’ve read it following issue number one.  Makes sense, right?  Then it probably won’t make sense to you when “the story so far” summary at the beginning of the issue explains plot points that very much aren’t in issue number one.  This is a pattern that continues over the next issue.

Later on, you realize that Nitz hasn’t purposefully avoided stereotypes, he’s just not very good at telling a story, culminating in a horrid final couple of issues with disgustingly typical female objectification (she’s beautiful and intelligent!  And sassy!), lacking grasp of transitions – scenes happen between pages without indication – and shorthand character development via, truly, magic.  The story hiccups are, perhaps, partially art-related, with Josh Howard presenting some details in such a way that they don’t have as much presence on the page as they perhaps should, but that wouldn’t have cleared up some things that some better dialogue or transitions could’ve cleaned up.  I’m also always amused on creator owned books when one of the primaries – Howard – checks out at some point; Kevin Sharpe takes over art on the final book.  Scheduling, maybe, or maybe they know something we don’t.

Nitz had good starting points for his various threads, and there’s credit for the conclusion, as it’s harsher than I would’ve guessed, but all the connecting points inbetween are a mess.