Two-in-One Review: Deadline Stop the presses! Or at least get it on the roll change! Don and Randy take an advance look at Deadline from Marvel Comics. Don: So, a comic book about a journalist who follows super-heroes and villains around. And here I sit, a professional journalist who's been reading super-hero comics since he was a kid. Could I be coming at this book with a bigger bias? The question is... will that bias made it easier for me to connect with this book, or will it make be hypersensitive to potential inaccuracies? Read on... Randy: As reviewers, we're used to getting preview material from Marvel information czar Bill Rosemann, but it's rarely written by Rosemann himself. But that is the case with Deadline #1, which we recieved as preview copies, complete in most respects save color and final production. Deadline #1 published by Marvel Comics written by Bill Rosemann illustrated by Guy Davis Don: Deadline tells the story of Kat Farrell, a young reporter who's just starting out at The Daily Bugle after a one-year internship. She longs to tell the stories of regular people, but she's been stuck with the super-hero/villain beat, one in which she has zero interest. That changes, though, when she stumbles upon a string of murders. Seven super-villain types have turned up dead, and it's all connected to a noted judge who went missing a while back. Randy: There are two different stories and tones going on in Deadline, actually. One is the Astro City style approach, seeing the Marvel Universe through the eyes of a normal person, and the other is an approach that seems at home in independent comics, more true to real life than to super-heroic fiction. Deadline is an unusual project for Marvel in many respects, a story that really puts the emphasis on normal people rather than super-heroes. Another unusual aspect is the use of one of my favorite artists, Guy Davis, on art chores. Don: Guy Davis? On a title set in the Marvel Universe? Seemed an unlikely pairing, but it works. At its heart, this story is a crime drama, and as Davis proved time and time again on DC/Vertigo's Sandman Mystery Theatre, his sketchy style works quite well on crime drama. Even in this black-and-white preview, it's clear that he's captured the splendor and filth of modern Manhattan nicely. More importantly, he conveys the youth and attitude of Kat Farrell nicely. Randy: Guy Davis seems an ideal choice for this type of subject matter, given his talent for realism and atmosphere. Bill Rosemann's script depicts New York City as a character as much as anyone else, and Davis's visions of the city remind me of the short time I spent living there. And, as Don notes, he has a way with the other characters as well. Kat Farrell appears like a regular girl, attractive but certainly not a supermodel, the perfect model of the everywoman. I have an interest in journalism (it's what I got my degree in, if nothing else), but what really drew me to this wasn't necessarily that it was a comic about a journalist but that it was a comic about a protagonist with a fairly routine job. Rosemann does a very nice job of conveying Kat as a regular person, and he likewise establishes a believable look at superhumans on their off-time, with great ideas like the super-human tattoo parlor. Also, while the narration sometimes gets a little flowery and melodramatic, I was generally pretty happy with Kat's sarcastic but likable voice. I also found the depiction of journalism to be fairly solid, although Don is the better (and no doubt more critical) judge of that. Don: So... do I think that Rosemann does justice to the profession of journalism? I have to admit, there are moments that he really hits the nail on the head, notably in the newsroom. There are bits and pieces that don't quite jibe with my experiences, but those have been in small towns in small newsrooms. Kat's dedication to her job and her curiosity comes off as a bit more adventurous than what one would normally see, but it makes for an exciting story. There is a genuine tone in this book, and it stems not from Kat's job, but her personality and mundane details. The nagging mother she moved to escape from, the effort to quit smoking, her apparent fascinating with Tolkein's books... these are the little things that make it easy to believe in Kat as something more than a two-dimensional image on the page. That's what's going to ultimately bring readers to this book and determine whether or not this four-issue limited series will be the beginning or the end of Kat Farrell's story in the Marvel Universe. Email Randy and Don comments about this review, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board.