DEADMAN: DEAD AGAIN #3
"Dead End!"
Neutral (3/10)
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DC Comics
Writer: Steve Vance
Pencils: Leonard Kirk
Inks: Rick Burchett
Colors: Tom McCraw & Digital Chameleon
Letters: Kurt Hathaway
Editors: Andrew Helfer & Mike McAvennie
Price: $2.50 US/$4.25 CAN |
Well, I missed the second issue of this limited series, but it seems to have played out pretty much like the first one. Vance once again offers up an accessible story, but not a terribly riveting one. This could have been a fascinating story about spirituality and the afterlife, but sadly, the creators go the more traditional route and super-heroes, villains and overabundant exposition.
Deadman once again finds himself forced to witness the death of a hero, only this time, it is the DC Universe's greatest hero: Superman. The reader is taken back to the time when the Man of Steel gave up his life to put an end to Doomsday's rampage. As Deadman accompanies Superman to a better place, they are set upon, as has happened before, by the ghost of the malevolent Caldera, who's collecting the souls of heroes for his demonic master, who finally stands revealed.
The Kirk/Burchett collaboration strikes me as being a little more focused and together than it was in the first issue, but the unique nature of each artist's style is lost in the pairing. Given that this story is about death and the theft of souls, I would also have expected a darker tone in the art and colors. The visuals aren't poor, per se... just ordinary.
In the first issue, we get Deadman's backstory... all of it. Here, we take a look into the past of Caldera, but the basics were already touched upon in the first issue as well. Though accessibility is important, Vance seems to be going too far.
The idea behind Dead Again is a solid one. Revisiting key moments in DC Universe history and examining the sacrifice of heroes from another perspective had a lot of promise. Instead, those special moments are diminished by serving as precursors to a far less interesting adventure.
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