“End Of The World”
Artists: Trevor Hairsine, Neil Edwards and Stefano Gaudiano
Color Artist: Rain Beredo
Letterer: Saida Temofonte
Review by Steve J. Ray
DCeased #6 delivers a brutal, horrifying, and heartbreaking end to a series that has thrilled fans and critics alike for the last seven months. It was clear from the start that this would be a comic that bucked trends, and defied convention. Killing off Batman in the very first issue was a bold move, but it was just the tip of the iceberg.
Over the course of five issues and one special, writer, Tom Taylor, has ripped our hearts out, again, and again. Heroes and villains have died, in scary, horrific and all-new, previously unimagined ways. Now, I can’t say that everyone shares my feelings, but while reading these stories I experienced moments of revulsion and revelation, heartbreak… and hope.
At the end of issue #5, it seemed that the one character who, more than any other, embodied hope to the entire DC Universe, was gone. Superman had suffered a fate worse than death… joining the horde of undead monsters unleashed by Darkseid’s anti-life equation.
I Make Art… ‘Til Somebody Dies
Artists Trevor Hairsine, Neil Edwards and Stefano Gaudiano have delivered some truly astonishing art. Having recently returned from New York, the scenes set in the Big Apple proved to be particularly powerful. I walked around the building named and featured in this issue, and observed it from the top of the Rockefeller Center during my stay. Seeing a real city, one that I hold dear to my heart, destroyed in the pages of a comic-book was as scary as any of the monsters and gory deaths we’d already witnessed.
Color Artist Rain Beredo and letterer Saida Temofonte have also done themselves proud. The colors and letters in this issue are perfect, and the way that these two talents work together is spectacular. Pages one and two of DCeased #6 are prime examples. Look at the colors, and the title of the story, then feel the sounds of the building being shattered, floor by floor, until the ultimate KRAKOOM, as its very foundations are rent asunder, on page two.
Faster than a speeding bullet.
More powerful than a locomotive.
432 Park Avenue, New York. The largest residential building in the world. 1,396 feet in the air.
Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.
But Clark had a much greater power.
Every single person who saw him was filled with hope.
Look.
Up in the sky…
All hope was lost at 11:46 a.m.
It was a Wednesday.
Brilliant.
Conclusion
This is a tale of heroism and of sacrifice. In this issue many lay down their lives to save others, and sometimes it’s not the characters you’d ever truly consider heroic, or selfless that are the ones making these sacrifices. I don’t want to give anything away because this is one of those series that I urge every DC Comics fan to read. Is it harrowing? Sure. Scary? Heck yeah! Violent? Yes, indeed. Heartbreaking? Indubitably. But for every tear, for every moment of horror or heartbreak…
… there’s hope.
Images Courtesy Of DC Entertainment