What? Me writing an original piece for my tumblr instead of just linking to something I did over on CCS?

Yeah. Sorry to the folks who follow this tumblr for my commentary on comics and responses to news. I know I’ve been ignoring it for a while. It’s a combination of saving material for a site with a wider audience and, honestly, not having much to talk about. But I’m going to try and write more for here again.

That said, let’s talk about DC Universe Presents #0.

I was on the fence about whether to pick up DC Universe Presents #0 for a while. After all, the announced contents of the book were a prelude to a series I didn’t really enjoy, two preludes to series I didn’t really care about, and a prelude to a series by Rob fucking Liefeld. We’d known for a while that DCUP (let’s be mature here) #0 was going to be a one-issue revival of some of the cancelled Wave 1 books, but while DC had announced that this comic would contain five stories, we only knew what four of them were. I spent some time pondering what the fifth story could be myself. I figured it was either gonna be Static Shock or Men of War, since those were also cancelled Wave 1 titles. I also thought that maybe they’d have an origin for Black Lightning and Blue Devil, as their arc, Black and Blue, will be the next focus of the next arc, so it’d be a neat way to lead in to it. Of course, there was also the possibility that DC may reintroduce somebody totally new, but when you think about it, that plan doesn’t really work, now does it?

Instead, yesterday, I found out that Deadman, who starred in the book’s first story arc, was the focus of the mystery story. And because I am a shameless whore for anything with Deadman in it (I would probably buy a Liefeld/Morrison team-up if it had Deadman in a single panel), I purchased it today. So what’s the deal?

That’s right, folks. I’m doing a review of a 10-page comic. Tumblr exclusive. BOOM!

The Premise:

“A blue goddess sent me back as some sort of do-gooder ghost. She says if I help some poor rubes–walk a mile in their shoes–I’ll restore my ‘Karmic Balance’. Clearly, she doesn’t know me very well. I’m Boston Brand. I’m a star. A headliner. And I do everything on my own terms. So, yeah, I’ll balance the scales all right–by nailing whoever killed me.”

-Deadman, moments after meeting Rama Kushna.

Boston Brand, former high-flying circus star and grade-A jerk, has just been killed and assigned to help people in death as the ghost hero Deadman. But first, he has a score to settle with the person that killed them. Whoever it is, he just needs to find them first.

The Writing:

Let me start by saying I’m not a fan of Tony Bedard. I don’t hate him, I just don’t like him. I don’t like what he did with the Blue Beetle reboot, essentially turning the character into all the emo parts of Spider-Man without any of the fun. I hear his work on GL: New Guardians is better.

And I’m inclined to believe it after reading this. What you have to understand is that this is not the Deadman that’s just automatically likable. This is Deadman just a couple hours into the gig. The Deadman we usually see in comics is a repentant hotshot. He’s confident and cocky, but genuinely trying to do the right thing. This guy’s the asshole who just died, looking for revenge on the asshole who killed him. This is the first step in Boston’s development from jerkhole to good soul. And it’s told well.

Ten pages really isn’t a lot of room to tell a story. Pretty much every tale in DC Universe Presents #0 suffers from this. O.M.A.C. and Mr. Terrific’s stories, while interesting, rely very heavily on you being familiar with the later events that follow for them to mean something (although O.M.A.C. did explain the origin story of Brother Eye, and Batman is still involved, so that’s nice). Blackhawks and Hawk and Dove just had me totally lost, and both sucked. Deadman, however, really does stand on its own. For the most part. If you haven’t read Twenty Questions in DC Universe Presents #s 1-5 (and you really should, here’s why), you can still figure out all the information you need to know.

Bedard tells a good story in very limited space. And that’s a credit to any writer.

The Art:

The art in this story comes courtesy of the man who ruined Static himself, Scott McDaniel. And it isn’t my hatred for McDaniel speaking when I say that this art sucks. I hated this art even before I looked at the credits (I skipped over them during my initial reading). I hate McDaniel’s art style. Faces are weird, the line work is messy, the whole thing feels choppy and incomplete. It’s too angular, and there isn’t enough detail in stuff. It’s just mediocre.

Final Thoughts:

I found it interesting that they focused on this. Back in the Silver Age, Deadman’s adventures revolved around trying to find his murderer. It was actually the original task he was assigned to. I feel like changing this asset of the character in the reboot was one of the smartest choices DC made, because now his purpose really is just to be a hero, instead of accidentally stumbling into heroism while on a quest for revenge.

I like the story. It’s a good story. Not great, and while I don’t think it needed to be told, it’s nice to see them address the issue of Deadman’s killer. I think it’s really important for us to get to see Deadman while he’s still a jerk, because it lets us appreciate just how far the character’s come. As the missing piece to an origin story, it’s great.

Deadman: Instant Karma, is a ten-page story in the fifty-page book, DC Universe Presents #0. It’s really not worth the price of admission unless you’re a Deadman-obsessed fool like me, and unless you’re interested in one of the other four stories, you’re wasting your money, as the book costs $5.99 USD. If you must read it, I recommend borrowing the book from somebody who does have it, or waiting for it to be collected in some kind of volume with a bunch of stories that are worth reading. I think all of the Zero Issues are getting an Omnibus, just like the Issue #1s did, so that may be worth checking out.

Or I guess you could pirate it. I’d like to note that I am heavily against piracy, and do not endorse it at all. The only times I think it’s acceptable are when you’re pirating something you already own, and just want it digitally, or you pirate something that is not legally available in your region.

At the same time, I also am heavily against charging six dollars for a book that’s 80% crap, so make of that what you will.