Task Force Z #3 – Matthew Rosenberg, Writer; Eddy Barrows, Penciller; Eber Ferreira, Inker; Adriano Lucas, Colorist
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: It turns out running a team full of zombies has its complications for Jason Todd. After being shot by an undead Deadshot last issue, Jason gets his first dose of lazarus resin—raising the question of whether he’s alive or dead. Not as unusual territory for Jason as for most people, but he has other concerns. Namely, Deadshot is the first member of his team who doesn’t want to be undead and isn’t tempted by the promise of permanent resurrection down the line. This raises some interesting ethical questions about the whole operation, and leads to Jason choosing to go off-site with the help of another captive of the facility. He comes back emboldened and starts making some demands of the mysterious Crispin—namely, to be able to give more of the serum to his team so they can actually function and not devolve into rampaging monsters. But there’s a much bigger issue lurking under the surface.
It’s been the elephant in the room for the whole series so far—Bane, one of the undead of A-Day, murdered Alfred Pennyworth, and it doesn’t really make sense that Jason would be okay with working with him. Well… he’s not, and this entire issue is a perfect buildup to that confrontation. I think Rosenberg sometimes gets pigeonholed as a guy who just writes crime and action comics, but his independent work is much more subtle and emotional. While this issue is packed full of zombie action, there are some scenes here that rise far above that and hint at something great to come. Then there’s the bizarre twist ending, which completely upends what you might expect to come in this series down the line. There are several surprise new players in this issue, along with a couple of ongoing mysteries like Mr. Bloom’s involvement. So far, every issue of this book has been better than the previous one.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
