Review: DCeased: The Unkillables

DCeased: The Unkillables by Tom Taylor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rating 5 out of 5 |Grade: A ; You've just stopped being a study group. You've now become something unstoppable. I hereby pronounce you a COMMUNITY


Review:

If you’d told me that someone can take a group of antiheroes & villains, people that years of continuity have conditioned you to portray as the bad guys, and then turn them into likable, empathetic, decent, even heroic individuals, then I’d ask you what you’re smoking, and let me try some. But that is exactly what writer Tom Taylor and co. managed to do, with some of DC’s lesser known baddies. All in a barely 150 pages, spin off limited series no less.

So, here’s the skinny. Following the events of DCeased, a corrupted anti life equation, with Cyborg as its patient zero managed to infect, through technology & blood, the majority of the human population, including several of our greatest heroes. What remained of humanity, aided by the remnants of the Justice league, managed to escape in massive arks. And with some late assists from the Green Lantern corps made way to colonize a new home. Leaving Earth to be taken over by the undead creatures, slave to the techno-organic plague that was the anti life virus.


Even though the heroes managed to ferry several million uninfected people, majority of the human survivors to safety, pressing constraints in time and the overwhelming legions lined against them meant that they had to leave many more to the mercy of the anti life zombies.



DCeased; The unkillables, deals with several such groups of individuals, heroes, antiheroes, villains, civilians, who were left behind, and are trying to make most of the world and their life, after its fall. At some point, these various groups of survivors come together, trying to reach some semblance of safety, away from the looming pervading specter of death which had taken up their world.

The story focuses on mainly three groups of survivors; a group of supervillains under Vandal Savage who, either due to their natural healing factors, or innate talent, have managed to stave off the Anti life equation. The second group, composed of Red Hood, Commissioner Gordon, Cassandra Cain & Bat dog Ace, as they make their way out of the ruins of Gotham, after dealing with the deaths of their family. Finally, there is a large group of children, who managed to barricade themselves inside their school premises, when their fellow classmates and caretakers were taken by the plague. In course, these groups would come together and help each other in their survival.

One might naturally ask ‘V, how does one make a group of murdering, conniving and antisocial criminals and villains into relatable individuals. While reminding that said group consists of the likes of Bane, Solomon Grundy, Cheetah, Lady Shiva, Dead Shot, Death stroke, Lady Death stroke, Mirror Master, Captain Cold, Creeper and the likes.’

Well, what you first do is take off all of their masks. Because in this new ruined world, there is no purpose in playing with capes and masks. There are no cops & robbers playing the eternal game of chase. There are no longer any Big blue boy scouts, trying to appeal to your humanity. No caped crusaders putting the ever living fear of god in you. There is only the people next to you, all bound by a beating heart, against those of the undead.

You make them talk like normal people, about their fears, loss, pains, mistakes. You make them argue over their differing ideologies and force them to confront the fact that no matter what their lives were before, now, here and now, none of those matters. Only Survival matters.

Then, you take them and make them into mentors for the children, for, as cold logic dictates, once civilization has collapsed, even children need to learn how to defend themselves, so as not be left behind, and to be able to contribute to their collective survival. You show them teaching, interacting, communicating, bonding and in no time something changes.

Solomon Grundy, the unfeeling Immortal murder machine, becomes Uncle grundy who gives the children swing rides on his massive arms.

Deadshot, the cold indifferent marksman, becomes the mentor that teaches you how to bash a zombie skull in with a slingshot.

Cheetah the homicidal hunter hellbent on killing Wonder woman, becomes the survival teacher and adorable kitty cat, who would dare no harm to her children.

Creeper becomes that eccentric cousin, who is able to make you crack up even during the direst of circumstances.

Finally, Deathstroke, the former unfeeling assassin who would murder anyone for the right price, he, along with Gordon becomes the exacting, fair and caring Den father to this group of orphans. This group now, from the ragtag group of survivors which it starts off as, becomes something more, something which cares; It becomes a study group…. I mean, a family.

When you then take this newly founded family of misfits, and throw them into the testing grounds, these characters, who formerly all acted upon self-interest, begin to show aspects of their personality which would surprise.

In defense of these children, and their newfound family, they are willing to battle insurmountable odds, lay their own lives on the line, and dare say even learn to act heroic.

The writers do such a good job of making the villains likable that there is one scene where Cheetah, Grundy & Creeper are taking on Zombie Wonder woman. Not only do you want the former villains to win, but you actually fear for their lives, as to what not Diana might do to them. R.I.P Kitty Cat.



That could be considered the quintessential essence of this story. How to make unlikeable characters, likable, even admirable. For a stand alone spin off, that is quite the band for the buck.



The Art:

The art style for The Unkillables is, admittedly a step down from the dark, horrific yet captivating frames put forth in the main series. The action is adequate, however the character design, the way they emote and move seems a bit janky.



But those are aspects which you can forgive, as from the onset, the relatively slow and easygoing pace demonstrates that this is a more content and character heavy narrative. The purpose is not just to draw fantastical fight scenes, of which there are a few, but to explore these characters in this setting. And in that regard, the series does a phenomenal job.

Closing Thoughts:

DCeased stories seem to have a habit of giving us badass, and at times inappropriately funny scenes. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention them.

For example, there is this one page, where Jason, upon finding Joker to be already dead, works through his issues in an unconventional manner against his nemesis. Namely



There is a scene where Vandal Savage, the 50000 year old Immortal, who sees a zombified wonder women in bloodrage, and makes a face which clearly conveyed ‘Oh Damn, I went and f**ked up’.



Or when Deathstroke, in a final act of sacrifice, holds off an entire undead horde, by himself, just so the group can escape.



Or a traumatized Mary Marvel, after Billy Batson becomes zombified, finally overcoming her fears and goes toe to toe against Zombie Diana, and turns her to paste.





Lady Shiva, the deadliest assassin on earth, finally acknowledging her love for Cassandra, and as a final act of defiance, rips out her own heart so as not to turn into a zombie



I started off DCeased with an amount of trepidation, as outlined in my review for that title. But not only have I grown to love it, I’m loving each accompanying tie in title. This world which Tom Taylor has cooked up, is ripe to be explored and mined for quality content.

Here’s looking forwards for more engaging stories from ‘The DCeased’.

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