Comic Review: DCeased #5 (Spoilers)

DCeased #5

DC Comics

Writer: Tom Taylor

Artists: Trevor Hairsine & James Harren

You know, I’m surprised it took them five issues of a six-issue miniseries to kill Superman. Especially in a series based around zombies (yes I know they’re not actually zombies, but they’re close enough) that had the balls to kill off Batman in issue 2. But, alas, Superman is gone at the end of DCeased #5 and with him, it seems that there is really no way to avert the apocalypse. The biggest hitters are now gone, and it’s up to the smaller characters to find a way to save the surviving members of the human race.

I’ve been kinda lukewarm on DCeased. Half the issues have felt like needless filler to me, whereas the other half have been excellent pieces of writing that showcase the very best of DC. I was pretty apprehensive entering into this issue as a result of this, but to my surprise, and indeed happiness, I found that this is probably the best issue of DCeased so far.

Tom Taylor writes the aftermath of an apocalyptic event amazingly, better than he wrote the outbreak of the virus honestly. We get to see people like Lex Luthor, people often portrayed as simply villains, as what they are. Human. He might be the sheer embodiment of greed and everything wrong with Metropolis, but even villains feel emotion sometimes. I liked Taylor’s Injustice: Gods Among Us, to a point, but overall I think this might be even better than that since it showcases the humanity of these characters better I feel.

The art’s great too. I think it works better here than it has in previous issues, it’s sorta rough around the edges throughout and that’s clearly intentional, due to the subject matter, but it feels like this is the issue when it becomes noticeably quite good. Trevor Hairsine’s been a mixed bag for me throughout this series (like the series in general, honestly), but here he’s at his best so far. The art for certain scenes and characters especially conveys the weight and darkness of what is happening to the world at large. The pages in the fortress of solitude are also great, as it shows quite how massively the techno-virus has ravaged the world. There are only a select few heroes left, and every single hero that is lost to the virus is another tick on the time bomb of the world.

DCeased #5 is an excellent issue, one that makes me extremely excited to find out how this world will come to an end. Or indeed, how this world will survive to see another day.

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