In this review of It Killed Everyone But Me #3, Sutton reaches a breaking point with The Heathen, and Detective Shell gains some very valuable knowledge concerning Mason’s whereabouts and who summoned The Stain.
It Killed Everyone But Me #1
Writer: Ryan Parrott
Artist: Letizia Cadonici
Main Cover: Josh Hixson
Variant Covers: Trevor Henderson
Page Count: 28 pages
Release Date: November 19, 2025
This review contains spoilers
We open It Killed Everyone But Me #3 on another flashback to that night at the cabin. The Heathen has entered the cabin, carrying Zain’s head. He gives his intended victims a head start, specifically to make things more fun for himself.
In the present, Detecitve Shell and Sutton are speaking to those that knew Samantha and Mason. Her ex-boyfriend Lincoln outright calls her a cheater, whereas Mason’s boyfriend Tim is definitely upset about the situation (and confused; Mason, as far as he knew, had no interest in girls). Their answers leave Sutton and Shell with differing opinions on the matter, as they go to touch base with The Heathen about their findings.
The Heathen asks Sutton about her life in the past few decades. She tells him she’s divorced. When he asks about her having any kids, she says no (which he sniffs out as a lie). He shows that he can take on other people’s appearances (such as that of Lucas), which triggers her trauma badly enough that she walks out on them at that moment.
Flashing back to the chase, we see The Heathen on his killing spree, where at one point, he takes on the appearance of another of her friends.
Present day: Sutton and Shell discuss The Heathen, and she tells him how bad of an effect it’s all had on her. She gives him her necklace that keeps The Heathen at bay.
Shell goes off to speak with The Heathen, tells him about what got him to quit the police force, and then he floats the idea that he doesn’t believe anyone to be beyond redemption…not even The Heathen.
While he calls Sutton with the news that he’s found out who summoned The Stain, where it (and by extension, Mason) is, and how to kill it, she’s making dinner. The trauma seems to have followed her home again, though, as she suddenly sees The Heathen in her kitchen and freaks out, while her daughter has seen no such entity…
Detective Shell, along with Tim’s brother Jeremy, arrives at the correct location. They find bones, Mason…and The Stain. Jeremy tries to run, but The Stain catches up, and informs him that he’s not in charge anymore…
The more I see of The Heathen, the more he fascinates me as a demonic entity. For one thing, there’s his apparent fondness for fruit-based nicknames. His go-to for Sutton is “Strawberry”, and he refers to one of her friends/his victims as “Peaches”.
But more interestingly: Detective Shell’s belief that redemption is possible. Even for a being as evil as The Heathen. His mention of that is enough to apparently give him pause and get him some concrete answers.
Though the end of It Killed Everyone But Me #3 raises another question…did The Stain tell Jeremy that he wasn’t its master anymore because it broke free itself, or is The Heathen more of a horrific puppeteer than anticipated? It just feels slightly suspicious that the detective seemed to get through to him, and feels like he may be setting him and Jeremy up for something.
I wonder just how contained The Heathen is overall, really. There’s a moment where Sutton sees him right there in her kitchen. It’s entirely possible that it’s a trauma-based hallucination. After all, in the earlier talk between Sutton, The Heathen, and Ian, those psychological wounds she’d worked so suppress for all those years did get ripped open anew thanks to The Heathen’s mind games. But on the other, what if he did show up for real, just for a second, specifically to mess with her.
One thing I’m enjoying about this title overall is how we get a little more of what happened that night with each issue. It Killed Everyone But Me #3 shows The Heathen toying with his prey, and from the sound of it, it sounds like he was summoned that night because someone lit a specific candle. Even if the scene of it being lit and summoning him way back when wasn’t shown, it’s still one of those actions that someone might not think twice about. Though some of The Heathen’s dialogue during his talk with/taunting of Sutton seems to imply that there was some kind of intent with lighting it.
Final Thoughts
As It Killed Everyone But Me continues, we’re seeing some fascinating questions come up, and are getting a good look at the trauma that comes from surviving one’s own personal horror film scenario. The way the past is juxtaposed with the present in It Killed Everyone But Me #3 is well done, and some interesting questions have come up.
