Review – DCeased #2 (DC)

Publisher: DC
Writer: Tom Taylor
Pencils: Trevor Hairsine
Inker: Stefano Gaudiano
Colours: Rain Berado
Letters: Saida Temofonte
Release Date: 5th June 2019

We all love a good zombie story, don’t we? From a young age I remember chatting with my mates on the playground about what our zombie apocalypse plans were. Where was the best place to hide, what was the best weapon to have, who would you have on your team and who would you throw to the wolves if you needed to? It delivered hours of nerdy debate that I’m sure were had by many other youths and adults alike, and it’s exactly why these kind of zombie spin offs have been so successful. Marvel have brought back “Marvel Zombies” a few times, even releasing their own zombie version of “The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe”, but now it’s DC’s turn to unleash the T-Virus on its cast and see what bonkers, blood-shedding insanity occurs.

That’s not to say I’m forgetting their previous foray into the world of zombies during the fantastic Blackest Night arc in the last days of the original DC, but they were more like magic-infused zombies, not to mention firmly entrenched within the established canon. Here we have a story that has broken free from the chains of continuity like a rage-infected chimpanzee breaking free from a shady testing lab, with Injustice writer Tom Taylor showcasing his experience of taking established characters and slotting them into an entirely new sandbox.

Last issue we learnt about how the Anti-Life Equation turned against Darkseid and quite literally went viral. Transmitted through the Internet we instantly lost millions as the world was hit with a virus that craved nothing less than the end of life. No hunger for brains, no shuffling, just pure death attacking an unprepared world. It has already claimed some of our best heroes and, as we see in the first few pages of this second issue, even more than we first thought. Not even the World’s Greatest Detective can fend off the threat. Well, at least not without pointing the surviving heroes in the right direction.

I’ll be honest, I was a bit underwhelmed by the concept of DCeased when I first heard if it, but the lure of “Batman versus zombies” and the magnificent cover art pulled me in, and I’m glad it did. After a few pages to set the scene the terror begins tenfold as the DC Universe tears itself apart from the inside out. Taylor continues to hit the same archetypal zombie beats this issue, jumping from scene to scene as we see more tropes thrown into the blender, with even the classic ‘80s ‘doomed camping trip’ being classily done. Putting the DC heroes (and indeed villains) in these well-known horror roles is both fascinating and intriguing, with Hairsine and Guardiano’s artwork only adding to the excitement.

It’s typically gory fun, every bit the flesh tearing demonic fury that you would expect from a title like this, but characters like Nightwing and The New Order are purposefully shown as close to their established look as possible to emphasise the intensity of the events occurring before our eyes, with only slight changes made for reasons that I’m sure will come into play in the next few issues.

A lot of bloody good fun so far, both literally and figuratively!

Rating: 4/5.

[PREVIEW ARTWORK]