The Deadman #1 – W. Maxwell Prince, Writer; Martin Morazzo, Artist; Chris O’Halloran, Colorist
Ray – 10/10
Ray: It’s rare to get a top indie creative team on a DC book, and even rarer to get one on an in-continuity main-line book. That makes the mad geniuses behind Ice Cream Man quite the get here. They’ve dabbled in the DCU before, with a particularly bizarre Superman Black Label title, and now they’re turning their attention to the DCU’s strangest ghostly guardian. When we meet Boston Brand again, he’s currently hanging around a hospice wing in a hospital, playing invisible janitor and helping people transition through the end of their life. He puts the fear of God into a corrupt executive, helps a woman through the last moments of pain, and gives a surprising gift to a teenage girl with cancer that may violate a few bylaws, before heading back home – to a neighborhood populated by ghosts locked in the moment of their deaths, equal parts morbidly funny and deeply sad. And there, in one house, a deeply personal connection to his old life.
This Deadman is less a superhero and more a reaper, working for Rama Kushna and helping people at the moment of their deaths, and he stands in wait for a biker about to take his last ride. But before he can take him to the afterlife, an inhuman force appears and consumes him. This ties into a horror-accented story involving a creepy old man who lives in a mansion and is attended to by a band of terrified maids playing out a careful ritual with him. From there, Deadman takes his mission to Rama’s realm – but the Goddess has changed quite a lot since we last saw her, and she might not be as useful as he hoped. This is a very fun twist that not only makes her a much more active participant in the story, but puts Deadman in a new role. This issue has some great comedy, some deeply primal horror, and some incredibly emotional moments. It’s pretty close to a perfect comic book.
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