“War Of The Undead Gods” – Finale
Artists: Trevor Hairsine, Lucas Meyer, Andy Lanning
Color Artist: Rain Beredo
Letterer: Saida Temofonte
Review by Steve J. Ray
In DCeased: War Of The Undead Gods #8 the final battle is waged, giving fans a shocking, yet perfect conclusion to the saga.
The hordes of intergalactic undead have been thwarted by the surviving heroes of Earth, the new Spectre, and an army of Kryptonians liberated from the bottle city of Kandor. However, the embodiment of Anti-Life, the evil entity known as Erebos remains.
DCeased: War Of The Undead Gods #8
Man, this issue blew my mind! Tom Taylor has really delivered the goods, not just with War of The Undead Gods, but with his entire DCeased epic. I said in my review for the original DCeased that killing off Batman in the first issue was a stroke of genius because, if he’d survived, he probably would’ve saved the day. So, having a cosmic saga that didn’t include DC Comics’ greatest tactical mind raised the stakes in brand new ways.
Many people have knocked Damian Wayne over the years, but this issue proves that he’s definitely his father’s son.
Trevor Hairsine, Lucas Meyer, and Andy Lanning’s art in this issue is fantastic. This blockbuster finale delivers everything that’s great about comics. I don’t just mean cosmic stakes, amazing action, and colorful heroes and villains, we also get some real emotion, humor, tragedy, and brilliant moments of character growth.
Yes, this is an alternate universe, but every single hero we read about on these pages is a perfect reflection of the ones whose adventures we’ve read and loved for decades. Having a universe where no one’s safe, where characters who would never be allowed to die permanently in their own books and still be expected to sell comics in 80 years’ time, meeting their demise adds to their eternal appeal. In the pages of DCeased no one’s safe, and even the greatest heroes can die.
Letting characters, who are to all intents and purposes immortal, meet their final ends is this saga’s greatest strength. When heroes die, we truly see just how great and noble they really are.
DCeased: War Of The Undead Gods #8 is a near-perfect comic. I say near perfect just because I would’ve liked it to have only one art team. Don’t get me wrong, Trevor Hairsine and Lucas Meyer are both wonderful artists, but their styles are different, and seeing the pages chop and change from one to the other did slightly disrupt the flow of the story for me. Again, this is a minor niggle as the series was perfect and every character shone.
Conclusion
The DCeased saga is one of the very few tales I own digitally, buy every individual issue of, and also have hardcover collections for. If you’ve never read it, please pick up the collected editions, because these are tales that will entertain, shock, terrify, inspire, and delight. That’s about the highest praise I can give.
Images Courtesy of DC Entertainment