Review: ‘The Oddly Pedestrian Life Of Christopher Chaos’ #3 Continues To Inspire

Welcome to the table,

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a monster. I was told I was monstrous and that my disability made me a freak, so naturally I wanted the perks that came with being a monster. The ability to jump and run through the woods for hours on end like Wolfman would have been amazing, though I often wondered if I would be a lame dog because my human form could not walk. The ability to shapeshift into a bat or mist would have been fantastic, but I often wondered if I would be immortal and still not be able to walk.

The weight of being a kid who was in a crap situation was never far from my mind even when daydreaming of being something more. That’s the funny thing about monsters though, it’s I guess the human bits of them that make them the most relatable.

Christopher Chaos and his slowly forming band of friends are very very relatable.

The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos continues to be one of my favorite books, even if I am late to review it because of all the other crazy stuff going on. Each issue seems to widen this weird world that the story is set in without giving too much away all at once, and there is something so charming about that. It’s very “pulp” to me. We are just along for the ride experiencing things as they come and adding each new experience to our ever-growing understanding of the setting.

We learn about Viveka Vikranth and frankly, she is a delightful addition to Christopher’s slowly growing circle of “friends.”

Anyone reading up to this point knows that when we get page time with a teen who looks like they would have been bullied in a John Hughes movie they are going to be important to the story in this book and the team of Tate Brombal, Isaac Goodhart, Miquel Muerto, Aditya Bidikar, and James Tynion IV do not let us down.  Viveka is plagued by a shaded past and is clearly hunted or should I say haunted in a very literal way by her past.

She has a survivor’s resolve about her, and I love that. There is no pity party here, just a woman who is clearly been through some stuff and is going to forge ahead even if she is scared. In a city like New Briar City that is a feat as this place feels like it is a mash-up of the fever dream of Spider Jerusalem after snorting a rail of powder made from the ground scripts of The Invisibles. That is what this book feels like and I mean that in the best possible way.

The weird plague doctors all in white who are hunting the non-cis-white youth in this book speak to me of individuals I often encountered in prominent roles in the religious communities, who would seek out anything “other” and make them conform or feel so cast out they would hide or leave altogether.

The book wears its social commentary on its sleeve… hell it wears it on a sign that flashes around its neck, and I am here for it. There is something so warming about seeing these kinds of kids fighting back in a strange madcap setting against very clearly depicted agents of conformity. The beautiful rebellion of youth is so present in this book and I hope every kid looking for hope or inspiration finds this and uses it as a springboard to follow their paths forward without fear or at the least with a renewed sense of purpose.

I remember when I first started seeing comics like this as a kid. I found them just at the right time and they really helped me not only feel like I could find a sense of self, but also inspired me to make things and try new stuff with my art and my storytelling.

You can pick up The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #3 now or order a digital version of it at this link.

Until next time, I really hope they get a Gill Man inspire friend… or a mummy… or both!