Task Force Z #1 – Matthew Rosenberg, Writer; Eddy Barrows, Penciller; Eber Ferreira, Inker; Adriano Lucas, Colorist
Ray – 7/10
Ray: I would not want to be anyone doing a zombie comic at DC right now after the phenomenal DCeased, but there are a few things this new Suicide Squad spin-off has going for it. For one thing, it stars Jason Todd, the popular anti-hero ex-Robin, as its POV character. Second, it features a host of popular Bat-villains—but they’re not exactly at their best. Killed on A-Day or in other events, they’re brought back from the dead via something called Lazarus Resin, and seem to have limited intelligence and a hunger for human flesh. The perfect setup for things to go horribly wrong, of course. Jason is barely able to stop Man-Bat from killing Crazy Quilt when they try to apprehend him in the opening segment, and Arkham Knight seems to be a skeletal, shambling mess who is mostly brought out to scare the team’s captives. Bane is slightly smarter, and oddly, the returning Mr. Bloom doesn’t seem to be dead at all and wants to redeem himself. An odd mix of villains backing Jason up here.
Of course, the people in charge of the project don’t seem to be much better. While Dr. Hobart seems to fancy herself a zombie psychologist and doesn’t like Jason’s attitude towards his undead teammate, the unseen scientist Crispin seems to take sadistic joy in tormenting the captives and taunting Jason. Amanda Waller isn’t seen this issue, but this definitely seems like one of her projects. The entire affair has a rather dour, gruesome tone, but what it does have going for it is some phenomenal art by Eddy Barrows. He’s specialized in some of the darkest books in the DCU in recent years, and there are some genuinely horrific visuals here. The two main battles, including a tense one with Mr. Freeze, work well to advance the story. What’s missing here is any characters to care about besides Jason. There are bits and pieces of intriguing story beats through the story, but it feels like a step down after Zdarsky’s Jason spotlight in Batman: Urban Legends.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
