Review: DCeased: Dead Planet #4

Review: DCeased: Dead Planet #4 

[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]

Writer: Tom Taylor

Artist: Trevor Hairsine

Letters: Saida Temofonte

Colors: Rain Beredo  

Reviewed by: Carl Bryan

Summary

“I’m not alone….” – Dinah Lance/Black Canary….a Green Lantern

Time is running out for the Justice League to unlock the Anti-Life cure as they face a deadly new threat on Earth-in addition to the billions of the undead! Their final desperate attempt at finding the cure will take them off-planet for the greatest heist in the history of New Genesis!

Positives

Tom Taylor borrows a bit from other zombie works in this installment of DCeased.  It works as you can’t keep coming to the table with new stories without either paying homage to other zombie works.  Or running out of twists and turns.

In this case, the new Trinity of Batman (Damian Wayne), Superman(jon Kent) and Wonder Woman (Cassie Sandsmark) are in concert with Cyborg in that the cure for this Anti-Life equation is somewhere buried in his programming. 

We have our quest and our heroes teaming up with members of the JLA Dark as well as Mister Miracle who is going through his own family issues.  However, Superman would feel a bit better in having Dinah Lance (Black Canary/Green Lantern) along for this endeavor.

But Ivy threw her out of the garden as Dinah is keeping an infected Oliver Queen (Green Arrow) in a power ring bubble cell.  No zombies allowed in the garden sanctuary.  The Governor in Walking Dead anyone? 

Taylor does a great job showing us the evolving and hot relationship of the young Damian Wayne and Cassie Sandmark and the tragic situation of Dinah and Oliver. 

Positives 2.0

I’m still a huge fan of Trevor Hairsine  with his renditions of our heroes, both old and new.  JLA Dark is a real thing.  The fact that the core four of Swamp Thing, Zatanna, Bobo, and Constantine are in the mix for this story allows what would have been considered minor players to take a major role! 

Ivy is in the control seat as she might be in the background, but I see Taylor making her the forefront as this story develops.  Mr. Miracle, New Genesis… Taylor is going everywhere to pepper characters into this tale. 

Taylor develops the bench like no other writer!

Negatives

This is truly picking “hairs off a gnat’s leg” to even mention it, but how can Jon Kent be more powerful than Clark when his parents are one human and one Kryptonian.  The human DNA should have not increased the power of Kryptonian DNA, but lessened it. But again, I am not a Kryptonian DNA specialist and these are comics where anything is possible.

Walking Dead is peppered in this issue a bit, but how could it not be?  It is a zombie apocalypse!

Verdict

Last frame of the comic!  Last frame of the comic!  Did I mention the LAST FRAME OF THE COMIC?  What zombie language for “the crap is hitting the fan”?  Taylor never disappoints!  Even with a couple of negatives, this is a five star comic.