By Cat Wyatt

Issue #5 of Heavenly Blues continues the tale of our dead criminals, this time with a focus on James. This fact is immediately made obvious by the fact that James is on the cover of the issue, usually a good indicator in this series that the character’s backstory is about to be revealed.

James’ story starts in Connecticut in 1871. Well, not his whole story that is, just the part they want us to see. James appears to be following his father’s lead, getting a job as a counter. He doesn’t seem too impressed with this, and having the reminder that this job will likely be for life doesn’t seem to be helping much.

Granted, it doesn’t look like James is going to have that long of a life, as in the next page he’s diagnosed with consumption. These days it’s easy to forget just how deadly and dangerous that illness was, but at the time it was essentially a death sentence. So much so that the doctor didn’t even try to offer him any medicine. Instead, it was suggested that he move to someplace with drier air, as it might buy him a couple of years.

For a man that feels like he’s done nothing his whole life, even the idea of two years of being free may just sound wonderful. With something such as this hanging over his shoulder, there’s no reason to hold back anymore, is there? He’s free to go where he wants, do what he wants, love who he wants, and fight who he wants. It doesn’t need to be more complicated than that.

It’s uncertain how much time James was able to buy in the end. Probably not more than the couple of years the doctor hinted at, especially when looking at how little James has appeared to age. It’s actually a bit of a depressing thought, and certainly explains his motivation to live it up in the afterlife.

Back to the present; the gang is in heaven, and the thrill of that appears to have mostly worn off. James and Amunet have been watching the trains for weeks, but it seems like the time to make a move has finally come. It seems like not a moment too soon. Based on how impulsive these two are it’s no small miracle that they’ve managed to behave this long, especially when put together.

Well…actually James has been causing a little bit of mayhem, he’s just been pretty lucky in the whole ‘not getting caught’ department. Really lucky. Apparently he was curious on how much of a pain tolerance these people had, so he went and shot one of them in the face. As it turns out, their pain tolerance is pretty darn low. As a gentle reminder, this is heaven, people can’t die. So that guy was fine, and likely some part of his brain knew that too. It didn’t seem to stop him from passing out though. This revelation may just give out team the edge it needs.

Also, apparently this gig was only meant for James, but Amunet decided to come along for the ride (no pun intended). Hideki has decided to go sober and that’s made staying back at the villa exceptionally intolerable…which explains her motivation to get the hell out of there.

Their mission, whatever it was supposed to be, got cut short at an unlucky sighting. James recognized somebody from his past, and worse that person seems to have recognized him. Without knowing just how badly James behaved in life it may be hard to guess how obvious it would be that he’d end up in hell…but it seems like James is pretty convinced this guy would know. Hence the running.

Meanwhile Isaiah and Erin are working on their part of the plan, which seems painfully convoluted. There’s probably a reason for this and it just hasn’t been revealed, but its so anxiety inducing in the meantime. They’ve been having a lovely little chat with Uriel, stringing him along like they planned. He somehow still believes that they’re investigators. That or he doesn’t care. Yeah, it’s more likely the latter isn’t it?

Here’s where the plot gets a bit more confusing. In a moment alone with Uriel, Erin tells him everything. Well, sort of. She revealed that they’re conning him, gave up the real identity of Isaiah, and even gives up the angel that planned all of this. Now presumably this is being done in an attempt to screw over the angel, and theoretically free themselves of their contract with him, but the revelation of Isaiah’s identity is concerning and confusing. We’ll just have to see how that one plays out.

While Erin has been talking with Uriel, Isaiah went and sought out Barbiel…seems like a pretty safe bet that this isn’t a coincidence. Whatever their game is, they’re clearly hopping to pit the two angels against each other. Based on looks alone it feels like a safe assumption that Ureil would win that fight.

Their end game is to find their way back to life, but it seems like a pretty bad idea to be burning all of these bridges in heaven. Then again, it’s probably a fair assumption that none of them will be winding up here again, even if they spent their new lives atoning for their actions.

While Erin and Isaiah have been distracted, James and Amunet have gone off after the man James recognized. Or is it the other way around? The man could very well have been trying to follow James, and James simply got the drop on him. Anyway, this leads us to another flashback with James, revealing the history he has with this man. It also tells us that James managed to eke out not two but four years after his diagnosis, which is pretty impressive. The man is, or at least was, a lawman, and he was the last man James ever saw before he died.

Well no wonder James assumed the guy would recognize him, and immediately identify him as not belonging. With a connection like that it’s easy to see why James would place a certain amount of importance on this guy. Their past together makes it easy for him to know that James isn’t here by chance, and that he is likely planning something big. It’ll be interesting to see how much of a threat he ends up being in the long run. Who will end up being a bigger threat to their plan, the angels or the human lawman?

This series has a wonderful style for storytelling. While they provide us with plenty of information about each character, it never comes off as overwhelming or cliché. It’s been fun learning about each character through each issue, but it’ll be interesting to see what they do next. We’ve officially been given the backstory on all of the main characters, so that raises some interesting questions.

Each character is so distinct from the others; they all had unique and different lives from one another, even though they all ended up together in death. Their variety makes it easy for each reader to find their own favorite of the group, which is important as we need to feel sympathetic and root for this team, no matter how far they may go next.

The art style for this series has been absolutely enchanting. The use of bolder colors really makes the series stand out from the rest on the shelves, as does the rougher line work and shading. It all fits thematically with the story being told, which reduces any breaking in the immersion. Instead we can really just focus on the characters, their stories, and their adventures.

Score: 4/5

Heavenly Blues #5
Scout Comics