DCEASED

 DCEASED

Off the back of Gyo, my appetite was wetted for some zombie goodness. In a post pandemic world I think zombie media has evolved into something scarier. We now know that human stupidity will be the biggest threat in any fast spreading infection scenario (we all suspected it would be in any case, but now we have recent empirical evidence). Also I think we’ve shed some of the tired tropes of the genre. I love the Ramero movies, and Mark Brooks’ phenomenal World War Z gave me sleepless nights the first time I read it, but the pinnacle for me is The Last of Us. The horror of a world ending scourge on the human race is greatly magnified when brought down on scale in my opinion. Following individuals throughout the panic is a lot more terrifying because we get to know and care for them as people. 

That’s hard to do when the infected are truly brainless. What World War Z and Last of Us taught us is that if you remain calm and keep thinking, you can simply pass through a dead world. What if the zombies are smart? What if they retained their attributes and knowledge, but were driven by that insatiable hunger? Now that's scary. That being said, the tone has to be right. For me, Marvel Zombies never hit the mark. It was always too comedic. Yes I love Spider-Man and don’t want to see him turn into a brain scoffing beast, but if he still makes quips whilst he does it, is he really gone? DCEASED on the other hand balances the scales. 

What am I Reading?

DCEASED, the entire collection, written by Tom Taylor. Reading order: 

DCEASED #1-6, illustrated by Trevor Hairsine, coloured by Rain Beredo. 

DCEASED: Unkillables #1-3, illustrated by Karl Mostert and Trevor Scott.

DCEASED: Hope at Worlds End #1-14, illustrated by Karl Mostert, Renato Guedes and Daniele Di Nicuolo.

DCEASED: Dead Planet #1-7, illustrated by Trevor Hairsine and Gigi Baldassini, coloured by Rain Beredo. 

DCEASED: War of the Undead Gods #1-8, illustrated by Trevor Hairsine, coloured by Rain Beredo. 

What’s it about?

DCEASED: After abducting Cyborg, Darkseid has finally reached his goal and completed the Anti-Life equation… but he miscalculated. The equation drove him into suicidal madness, leaping into the core of Apokolips, causing the planet to explode. Split seconds before detonation, Cyborg escapes back to earth. The moment he arrives, the Anti-Life equation virus leaps to the internet, causing the insanity to spread through screens. The end of the world comes swift and brutal. Heroes are lost, families destroyed, but those that are left band together to save who they can.

Unkillables: There are only two sides in this war, the living and the anti-living. A rag tag crew of anti-heroes and villains are drawn together to save an orphanage swamped in a horde of ravenous killers.

Hope at Worlds End: A collection of survivor stories during the chaotic days of the fall of earth. Can the heroes defend the few sanctuaries left standing before the exodus? 

Dead Planet: Earth is abandoned, left to the anti-living. The few uninfected hold little hope for rescue now that most of the heroes have headed for the stars. In the last moments of earth, Cyborg has discovered the truth, there is a cure! But can it be done before doom ends it all?

War of the Undead Gods: Darkseid is back, and he’s bringing the full wrath of the anti-life with him. His scourge across the galaxy has turned some of the most powerful entities and armies to the poison of death. Even with the cure, can the new Justice League stand against him?

What’s good about it?

In recent years Tom Taylor has been the poster child for DC’s alternative timeline stories. Injustice being the big one, with over a hundred issues, but also to the smaller scale such as the twelve issue run of Dark Knights of Steel. Alongside that, I’ve also seen the forever vocal minority on Twitter throwing a considerable amount of crap at Tom. They rarely have anything constructive to say, just a seeming disdain for how he treats some characters in these stories. Here’s the big thing they need to understand; these aren’t necessarily the characters as you know them from other books. And that's entirely the point! These books are meant to be fun packages twisted from the expectations of cannon. If you can’t get past that, why read an elseworld? For me, I love it!

I’m not ashamed to say that some of the emotional beats in this hit me hard. Tears were shed at some of the goodbyes and more so at some of the reunions. All you need to do to get my waterworks going is put Pa Kent or Alfred in danger. On the other side of the coin, there are some seriously awesome moments in these books. Jon telling Orion to stay down is up there with one of my favourite Superman moments. Much like Injustice, Taylor doesn’t leave any concepts off the table in the fight against the Anti-Living. He fully empties the toy box, pulling insane stunts with the powers and tools of the Justice League and beyond. He’s not afraid to do this for both sides of the war. Of course a Zombie Superman or Wonderwoman would be scary but I found some of the smaller hitters all the more terrifying. Mirror Master, Plastic Man and Mr Mxyzptlk are far more frightening for me. 

I’m finding it hard to pick a favourite of the books. All of them are a fantastic mix of emotions, heartfelt, heart pumping and fist pumping. There are some subtle character moments that outline Taylor’s love for DC and underline the messaging of what it means to be a hero. The best one that runs throughout the books is the parallel between Black Adam and Shazam. In Hope At Worlds End, Black Adam ruthlessly destroys all the blighted in Kahndaq, despite the collateral damage. He mocks the Justice League’s lack of steel to do the necessary evil to do the most good. However, whilst walking the streets of Kahndaq unpowered, he is infected by the Anti-Life equation. Terrified, Black Adam invokes the lightning in an attempt to save himself and hands the horde a god… dooming his country to death. In contrast Billy silently sacrifices himself in the Unkillables. He was strong enough to know that he would be a threat, and hid himself away amongst the infected as a brave but dead young boy. 

What did I struggle with?

I can’t pick a favourite book, but I can say that War of the Undead Gods is the weakest for me. It's full of good moments but I couldn’t get on board with the twist. It’s too far out of left field in my opinion. It also offers a definitive end to the threat. In other Zombie media, the infection becomes a thing the characters need to live with, and in a covid world, that rings true. 

I think my favourite issue is possibly the smallest scale story in Hope At Worlds End, featuring Detective Chimp, Ace the Bat-Hound and Krypto. In that they address that the equation doesn’t affect animals. That raises the biggest gap in DCEASED for me: The Red. Where is Animal-Man? If animals aren’t impacted, they are as big a resource to the Justice League as The Green is. I honestly expected this to be a bigger thing and it feels like a massive missed opportunity to do something interesting. Or Ratcatcher? We could have had survivors ferried between sanctuaries ringed in an army of rats, much like the end of The Suicide Squad.  

A tiny thing… I have the hardbacks of each of these books, each with a nice stylized metallic shine on the font. But the covers are a mix of artists and images. Why?! Why not keep it consistent? I personally much prefer the covers showing infected characters.

Would I recommend it?

For the DC fan, I don’t think you can go wrong with DCEASED… just don’t get too attached to anyone.