The Deadman #1 Review
How do you make a story about a ghost trapeze artist land a perfect 10/10? Focus on the human condition. Love, humor, pain, and everything in between make The Deadman #1 a perfect debut. W. Maxwell Prince, Martin Morazzo, Christ O’Halloran, and Good Old Neon are the perfect team to tackle Deadman. Their series Ice Cream Man has proven to be one of the best comics in the medium, exploring many topics through its anthological format. That ability to tap into so many feelings from a series like that is on full display in The Deadman.
The Deadman enters the Next Level! In the millisecond following his murder, the soul of shifty circus aerialist Boston Brand was commandeered by the goddess Rama Kushna, who deputized the erstwhile performer’s ghost with a sacred spectral assignment: the Custodian of All Souls! Now Brand floats — begrudgingly — through this blue-green purgatory we call Earth, upholding the Laws of Spiritual Math and protecting humanity from evil — even if they can’t see or hear him. Open up to this new era of DC’s most lively deceased superhero — the Deadman — in a story about life, death, and everything in between… replete with paranormal activity, possessions, and a profusion of other poignant peculiarities.
One of the first displays of the series’s prowess isn’t what you expect from a book starring Deadman because it deals directly with life. When we think about death, it’s typically revolving around the finality of it all. But what about the after in multiple facets?
Boston experiences what is left in the hearts of those who have to deal with death itself. A nurse passes through him, which sets off a CMF (coupled memory fission), so Boston gets a literal taste of loss. It’s a simple thought of the nurse’s Gran Gran’s rice pudding, but it’s like an 18-wheeler tearing through a one-room shack. It’s been 36 years since the death, but that feeling never leaves the living because the dead live on through their memories in others. It’s an extremely powerful page that introduces us to a comic focused on feeling more than on mashing action figures together.
On the opposite side of the coin, there is penance in death as well. You must face a lifetime of triumphs, mistakes, and all of the things that make us human. So comes in our first death, Mr. Ira Jory, and the weight of choice. Typically, when we are introduced to someone on their deathbed, we get a poignant scene of them reminiscing, but The Deadman #1 holds the character’s hand to the flame. Even before death, the life you lived may still not be a good one. Mr. Jory profited from others’ pain and misery, which he is being held responsible for in the afterlife, as Deadman tells.
Both examples show how the series takes the typical and twists it in its arms to give you a different angle of what it means to be human. Some pain can bring catharsis, while the ultimate catharsis of death is a time for remorse for the choices you have made. Neither is the typical approach for scenes of this nature.
Everything hangs in a balance around Deadman, who is essentially the afterlife’s janitor. But that doesn’t mean that he himself is without a lot of those complicated feelings. We get to see Deadman yearning for something that was lost. The simple pleasures of life and love are out of his reach, even after countless encounters where he helps people. It adds depth to Deadman, who has spent much of his time as a side character or backup as of late.
With the cosmic math of life and death at the forefront of The Deadman #1, it all adds up to another brilliant #1 debut in the Next Level initiative. The Deadman is what happens when you let one of the greatest creative teams in comics bring new life to a nearly 60-year-old character. Exploring not only life but all the messiness of life itself is going to make this a must-read comic.
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