Review – DCeased: Dead Planet #7 – Last Stand for Humanity

DCeased: Dead Planet #7 – Tom Taylor, Writer; Trevor Hairsine, Penciller; Gigi Balsaddini, Stefano Guadiano, Inkers; Rain Beredo, Colorist

Ray – 9/10

Ray: After four miniseries, the world of DCeased comes to a conclusion with this oversized issue. Tom Taylor has no shortage of menaces waiting for the heroes before they can save humanity, including an army of Amazos killing off the undead for the second time and a rampaging Trigon looking to claim the ruined world as his own. That means the action is scattered all over the world, with a huge cast of characters often only getting a few panels to make their impact. The new Superman and Batman, who rose to take on their fathers’ mantle together, are the stars of the opening part of the story, and it’s interesting to see them influence each other in positive ways. Cassandra Cain, who became one of the bearers of the power of Shazam, delivers some great action scenes. Wallace West, who has risen to become the new Flash, has a critical role as he starts to deliver the cure at record speed—in scenes that are much more prescient than they were when the series began.

The starring role this issue, though, belongs to John Constantine. Over the last few issues, we’ve seen him collect magical artifacts from around the DCU through subterfuge and often outright betrayal. The reason why becomes clear this issue, as he sets into motion a series of events that take down Trigon with one stunning last-ditch gambit. Taylor’s handle on Constantine in both this and the Vertigo series has been the best any writer has shown in years—maybe since the classic Vertigo days. If there’s one complaint I have, it’s that there is so much going on here that there really isn’t time for the emotional beats of the ending to land. There’s a few amazing scenes, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions about this world—both for what comes next, and for what came in the many gaps. It’s one of DC’s most popular alternate worlds in years, so I would be surprised if the story truly ended here.

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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.