The Deviant, Book Two Review (James Tynion IV, Joshua Hixson)

The Deviant Killer, supposedly a gay peeping tom who chopped up the young boys he took pics of at Christmas, has been locked up since the early ‘70s. Half a century later and a copycat killer is recreating his MO on a new generation of victims. True crime aficionado Michael is arrested - his fascination with the case and his ID being found at a crime scene being enough to put him away for now. Meanwhile his boyfriend Derek and FBI Agent Hall continue looking into the case to see if Michael really was the new Deviant Killer or not.

The second and final part of James Tynion IV and Joshua Hixson’s The Deviant is a weak way to close out what was a promising premise. A big part of what fails to make it compelling is that we know it’s not going to be Michael who’s the real killer. It’d be clever if Tynion had figured out a way to make it so that he was, but his character is too clear cut not to be which takes away any suspense.

And so we have to spend much of the book watching a rather static narrative play out. Derek does some digging of his own, visits Randall (the “original” Deviant Killer), and so on, while Hall does the same. Some flashbacks to Michael’s youth are thrown in to limply suggest he might still be the killer even if all it does is the opposite. It’s pretty dull stuff unfortunately.

The story picks up once the Deviant Killer gets going again and I did want to find out who it really was - the narrative has that hook going for it. It’s not an unsatisfying reveal but the killer’s identity also isn’t that inspired either. Basically, if you were trying to figure it out as you were reading, you were never going to - it’s that kind of “mystery”.

Hixson’s art is really good. The design of the Deviant Killer is effective in conveying menace and he manages to make each page look interesting despite most of it being two people sat in a room talking to one another. Definitely an artist whose work I’ll look out for in the future.

I’m not sure Tynion was successful in saying anything meaningful about the true crime phenomenon of the last few years, nor did I find it convincing that gay persecution remains ongoing today in the same way that it did 50 years ago.

The Deviant, Book Two has its moments but these are too few and far between - an underwhelming conclusion to what might have been a decent crime comic in the hands of a better writer.