The Deadman #3 – W. Maxwell Prince, Writer; Martin Morazzo, Artist; Chris O’Halloran, Colorist
Ray – 10/10
Ray: This series has easily been the closest the creative team has gotten to going Full Ice Cream Man on us, but it never quite got there. It is a mainstream DC book, after all. Well, I suppose they were just warming up, because this issue is quite possibly the strangest book ever put out by DC since the heyday of Vertigo, and I mean that in the best way possible. For those who don’t know, Ice Cream Man is the bizarre anthology put out by Prince and Morazzo, fusing cosmic horror with mundane fears, and it’s stunning. The book also experiments with format in a way few books do, and that’s where this issue is at its strongest. As the story opens, Deadman and his ghostly young friend Bobby are searching for answers, and to find them, they’ll have to confer with Lucifer. And that means they’ll have to descend into Hell itself – and explore every single circle of the damned.
This is the second issue in recent months, after Dan Mora’s tour de force on Superman, where the artist turns the story into a jam issue featuring only one artist. It’s amazing how Morazzo shifts his art style with each circle, sometimes making amazing use of minimalism to create starkly fascinating images. The story even turns into a prose tale for brief periods, a trick that Prince has pulled before in his creator-owned works. But eventually, once all the tricks are done and Deadman has seen something down in Hell that’s made him VERY angry, he’s ready to face off against Lucifer in person. Much like Rama Kushna, the king of hell has been transformed into a child. Unlike her, he’s a capricious and bratty child who needs to be bribed to provide any help. Deadman gets the answers he’s looking for, but that just sends him on a new quest – to find a much higher power.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes
