Comic Review: DCeased: A Good Day to Die (2019-) #1

DCeased: A Good Day To Die (2019-) #1

DC Comics

Writer: Tom Taylor

Artists: Laura Braga, Darick Robertson

Have you been reading DCeased? It’s pretty dang good. The Anti-life equation is infecting people, turning them into mindless killers. Zombies, essentially. Superman and other assorted heroes are gathering together to make some kind of a stand. I love the superhero genre, I love the zombie genre. DCeased is a good mixture of the two that I am having a lot of fun reading.

DCeased: A Good Day to Die #1 takes us away from Superman and the other survivors in Metropolis and puts the focus on some less mainstream heroes. The comic opens with Mr. Miracle, and his wife Big Barda, observing their home. But as we’ve seen, Apokalypse is already destroyed. The two continue on to Earth, and team up with Mr. Terrific, who’s trying, but failing, to reverse the infection. The trio continue looking for a solution with other heroes, but things look grim.

Tom Taylor has a superpower, in that he can make me cry a bit with his comics. It happened in Injustice 2, when Ted Kord dies, and it happens a couple of times in this issue. In the main DCeased series there’s been a couple of slower issues. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t great either. But I think this issue is a perfect companion piece to the main story. I don’t think we’ve seen any of the characters in here in the main story yet, so there’s no knowing what their fate may be, which is one of the things I like in a zombie event. On top of that, what they’re doing, looking for a cure, makes sense. They’re all heroes, they want to help and not hurt people.

I really dig the art in this issue. There are two artists in this issue, Laura Braga and Darick Robertson. Laura Braga does the bulk of the issue, and I really like her style. It’s an alternate universe, but the characters have their current costumes. Darick Robertson has a small chunk of pages in the middle, and I really like what he’s doing. Things get a bit more violent on his pages, but his style is a bit grittier and it just fits really well. Even though they have two distinct styles, they share the same color artist, Rain Beredo. There’s a distinction, but the color helps keep a bit of a smoother transition rather than a complete jump in styles.

I think as far as tie-in comics for an event, this is kind of perfect. It both gives us and answers questions that I think are reasonable and within the realm of the story. It’s a different cast of characters from the main story, so there are no continuity errors. And it leaves it open enough that we’ll see the events and characters from this pop up again. It helps that Tom Taylor is a fantastic writer and is the author behind the main series. And on top of it, the artists in this issue are both great at what they do. DCeased is a good, fun story. As fun as the apocalypse can be, at least. DCeased A Good Day to Die is easily one of the better tie-ins to a comic book event I’ve ever read. 

Click for More Comic Book Reviews