The Devil That Wears My Face from Mad Cave Studios is where The Exorcist meets The Vatican Conspiracy. Gutternaut familiar David Pepose drafts a story about how a crisis of faith isn’t just about personal demons, but the corrupt infrastructure of the institutions. Bringing that dire point home is the artwork of Alex Cormack full of dark locations and demonic presences.
The Devil That Wears My Face: Is A Lesser Evil Worth It?
Pepose focuses the point-of-view on two characters: main hero Father Franco Vieri and the demon Legion. With the influences worn on the series’ sleeves, we get a look into how faith can be corrupted. Father Vieri has enough problems to deal with thanks to how terrifying exorcisms can get. But when his colleagues see him as a disposable tool, readers can feel why his beliefs are challenged. What with some of the higher ranking priests more interested in influencing politics, ready to throw Vieri under the bus to do so.
Then there’s Legion, a creature of pure evil ready to reek havoc. Only it seems that readers might actually root for this monstrosity. With a fair bit of the Vatican being corrupt, seeing a transparently evil force take control of their only hope is cathartic. But there’s a suspenseful dread that comes with it.
That manifests in the fourth issue when Legion takes control of the inquisitors after they become aware of him. It confirms to the readers that a lesser evil let an even greater one in… But now what? If and when Legion is defeated, is anything really going to change? Like when a drunken priest stands up to him, not willing to let Vieri take the fall, Legion kills him for a reward. Everything feels like it’s leading up to a tragedy… or is it?
Shock and Empathy
Cormack’s art has a lot of big surprises in splash pages just after wind-up presentations for big turning points. First in a three wide panel grid for the unified dramatic question of what happened to Vieri. Issue 1 ends with him now the one possessing who he tried to save. Then the next issue cold opens with a lot of emotions, not least of which is how new readers could mistake Vieri for Legion like the inquisitors. Before the splash page, bubbles evoke the devil’s phantasmic eyes. So older readers are definitely shocked when they see Legion made Vieri into a demon. Not only is the holy regalia burning him alive, the red hoods and smug look of the inquisitors make Vieri feel small. If Vieri’s faith was challenged before, now it looks like it could kill him.
Now it looks like the safe option is playing Legion’s game. Hence why Vieri wears a devil’s mask at a masquerade. But when you look at the symbology of the pentagram and a silver sword to keep Legion at bay, Vieri still has his faith. It just took a lot of grief, struggle, and the face of evil to keep it.
Although issue four shows that maybe some things in exorcisms need to change and adapt. Legion can hold a cross just fine because demons are defined as something possessing an already inhabited body unlike Vieri. Meta-textually, this feels like a criticism of the formulas that hold the genre back: the implication that evil can be defeated by keeping your faith by one-size fits-all rituals/regalia.
On another note, Justin Birch’s lettering delivers these scenes rather well. Vieri’s corrupted word balloons suggested something was wrong, but the execution of Legion’s plan hid in plain sight. Plus the suspense when “Vieri” returned to his confessional was tense enough, but seeing the darker word balloons of Legion come out of his body was a genuine shock.
The Difference Between Lesser Evils and Necessary Evils
The Devil That Wears My Face is going to be an unforgettable thriller. By combining two sub-genres they get readers to think about a lot of things. Not just where this story will go as the suspense mounts up but how people look at evil. When is necessary evil not in the lesser ones; how long can a lesser evil stay that way as they get bigger? Finally, what needs to change as evil adapts? All of that and more with issue 4 out on January 31st. For now the score is 9/10.
Thanks for coming to the end and as always, remember to look between the panels.