Deadman #5

Released: December 21, 2006

Publisher: Vertigo

Writer: Bruce Jones

Art: John Watkiss

Colors: Jeromy Cox

Letters: Jared K. Fletcher

Cover: John Watkiss

 

This is the last review I’ll be doing of Deadman, as you’ll see shortly. The series is a complete revamp of the DC character, Deadman (duh), but Jones has decided to completely leave the superhero genre in exchange for, well, I’m not really sure what you’d call it: Postmodern Science Fiction Ghost Story? Whatever it is, it isn’t quite clicking.

 

Jones is known for long, long build-ups, and I normally love that style of story-telling, but this is just silly here. The very nature of the story has our protagonist jumping around from reality to reality with the story drastically changing as he goes. This changing story is the single biggest problem I have with the story. With a snail’s pace plot and no discernable stability in the relationship between characters (except the two brothers), then it’s very hard to figure out what’s going on, or care about what you do know is going on.

 

I have no clue what the protagonist’s relationship is to the girl he’s dragging around and the villains chasing the pair are equally enigmatic, able to control reality to a degree as well. This mystery is not intriguing; it’s baffling and therefore lacks any drama. Deadman’s powers are equally ridiculous since he seems to do whatever he wants. Those kinds of reality powers are not dramatic, since the writer simply makes up absurd solutions to the protagonist’s problems.

 

It isn’t all horrible, in graphic novel format this series could have really shined. But we aren’t in graphic novel format. We’re waiting a month for each tidbit of new information and plot advancement, some issues giving neither. This is just too slow to work properly in this monthly format. Drip feed information is rough as it is, but when you throw in the amount of ‘just kidding’ moments that this series has produced then it really gets frustrating.

 

The art is beautiful, not gonna take anything away from that, and it fits the supernatural tone of the book nicely. It also has a semi-retro feel to it with its broad brush strokes and large swathes of color. Sadly, the atmospheric art also adds to the comic’s confusing nature: some panels were just unreadable.

 

I suggest anyone interested in the series to wait for the Trade Paper Backs. It should read a better there, but it will still be pages of postmodernism, skipping around constantly. You’ll never be sure of what’s going on, of why you spent money to read it.

 

Rating - 4