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DEADMAN #1
Not Recommended (2/10)
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DC Comics
Writer: Steve Vance
Pencils: Josep Beroy
Inks: Dan Green
Colors: Dave Stewart
Letters: Bob Lappan
Editor: Andy Helfer
Price: $2.50 US/$4.25 CAN |
DC's been coming at readers with a string of revivals lately. We've seen the return of Suicide Squad and Doom Patrol, and after a disappointing limited series (Dead Again), they're offering up a new ongoing Deadman series. Sadly, the series is off to a rocky start, with a hard-to-swallow plot and hum-drum art.
Boston Brand, the ghost better known as Deadman, and his friend, the diminutive private eye Max Loomis, learn than one of their old friends from the circus has passed away under mysterious circumstances, and his brother has hired them to figure out what happened. Deadman and Max stumble upon a pair of smugglers, and the trail leads them to a much more dangerous situation than they expected.
Though I didn't care for the premise behind Deadman: Dead Again, I was intrigued by the ideas it established for this ongoing series. Sadly, those ideas really don't come together here. This series sets up the title character and Max as private eyes, but it doesn't appeal to me as much as I thought it might. The duo's first case just happens to revolve around old friends. Furthermore, Vance tells the reader that the premise of the book will be Max and Boston's search for the evil folks who once lived in Nanda Parbat, they seem to disregard that mission right off the bat.
Beroy's art is capable, and his characters are expressive. I see a hint of a Mike Zeck influence in his work, albeit with a greater level of detail. In the end, though, the visuals don't really grab me at all. The art never rises above the level of simply ordinary. Furthermore, I'm disappointed to see the title character returned to his old super-hero look, as opposed to the more tortured, skeletal appearance he's boasted in other stories in recent years.
Vance's characters really don't come alive in this first issue, either. I don't really get a sense of who Max, Moira or Lenny are beyond their physical deformities. Deadman continues to lament how he passed on, even though he's been given opportunity for closure time and time again. I didn't find anything to really connect with in this book, character-wise.
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