Marcus Helminiak Comic Reviews

Overall, Deadman’s first issue is a whole lot of dark, honest fun. It balances grim reality with hopeful, beautiful reality, and has gotten me plenty excited for whatever’s coming next. It’s rare to see a DC book balance its tone so well, especially without making any of the jumps feel overbearing. This miniseries has a very promising start, and if the rest of it is at the same quality, it’s bound to be something special. If you’re a fan of ghost stories, Deadman, or this team’s previous work, you’re sure to like this too!

Overall, this issue is very good, but it does have a few hallmarks of small nitpicks that could become problems if they go unaddressed. The story is charging forward so quickly that it will start to affect characterization soon if it doesn’t slow down. Still, there’s no denying that this issue is a whole lot of awesome fun in a way that only Absolute Batman can be. It’s big, loud, and in your face, and I love it. I hope that it slows down just a bit for its own sake, but everything we have in this issue is definitely worth the price of admission. It continues to give us way more than the average issue, at the very least.

Overall, this issue is a fantastic part of a fun, self-contained story for Doctor Doom. I understand that everyone is already pretty Doomed out with how much Marvel is pushing the character, but this is the type of story to justify that much focus. Every Doctor Doom fan will get something out of this, and it might even make a few new fans of him along the way.

Overall, this issue is definitely a set-up issue that is trying to capitalize on the movie, but it offers a very entertaining story that I definitely want to follow to its conclusion. The only thing it needs to do is flesh out its three protagonists’ storylines, and I’m confident that this creative team can do just that. If it’s going to call itself a Spider-Man book, though, it definitely needs more Spider-Man in future issues.

Overall, this issue is very much more of the same with the series as a whole. If you’ve enjoyed Orlando’s work with Scarlet Witch, then you’re sure to love this issue, as it highlights a whole lot of his strengths. However, it also shows some of the run’s biggest weaknesses, with the lack of the grounding element that tethers Wanda to the world she works so hard to improve. Still, it covers a shocking amount of ground for a modern comic, and it definitely provides a fun story and some interesting new villains.

Overall, this issue is a mixed bag for me. It has a lot of potential that it flirts with constantly, but its rushed pacing killed a lot of my interest and stymied some of its greatest strengths. This could just be a problem with establishing the status quo, however. I can easily see it correcting this problem by issue two, and spending more time in Jor-El’s head, and developing his relationship with the world around him. This issue wasn’t for me, but I’ll definitely check out the next one to see how it handles its new status quo.