It’s always a surprise just how hungry superhero fans are for zombified versions of their favorite characters. Just when you think the craze has passed, DC Comics scores a huge hit with DCeased, a miniseries set in an alternate universe where humanity is infected by Darkseid’s Anti-Life Equation, turning people into mindless killers. Written by Tom Taylor with art by Trevor Hairsine, Stefano Gaudiano, and Rain Beredo, DCeased tapped into a lot of the things that made Taylor Injustice comics so compelling, telling an extremely bleak superhero story that is ultimately about hope, resilience, and camaraderie in times of apocalyptic doom.
Taylor returns to this world in the three-issue DCeased: Unkillables miniseries, following two groups of survivors who didn’t appear in the first book: a team of supervillains led by Vandal Savage and a trio of Bat-buddies (Jason Todd, Cassandra Cain, and Jim Gordon). Featuring art by Karl Mostert, inkers Trevor Scott and Neil Edwards, and colorist Rex Lokus, DCeased: Unkillables delivers a steady stream of scares, spectacle, and humor. This exclusive preview of next week’s DCeased: Unkillables #2 is light on the jokes, instead focusing on the despair that falls over the characters when they find out they’ve been abandoned by the other heroes, who leave Earth behind at the end of the first series.
There’s a lot of emotion here as Cassandra, Jason, and Jim decide to keep this information a secret from the orphans they’re protecting, eventually giving way to intense action when Cassandra’s mother, Lady Shiva, appears to bring her daughter to the supervillain sanctuary. Even if you didn’t read the first DCeased, this new miniseries provides a fully accessible and exciting story about heroes and villains doing whatever they can to survive. And readers hungry for more are in luck: Taylor announced on his Twitter yesterday that DCeased 2: Dead Planet is on the way later this year.
4 Comments
DCeased was so much better than it had any right to be. I hope they don’t run this into the dirt like Marvel did with Marvel Zombies.
I dont know Mostert but that art is lovely. The composition and storytelling is miles ahead of DCs typically bland house style.
It reminds me of Jon Davis Hunt’s art on the fantastic The Wild Storm series, although Mostert’s faces are also very Frank Quitely-esque.
I love how Quitely has influenced a whole generation of artists. I’ll take the likes of Chris Burnham over another Jim Lee/David Finch wannabe.