Next Level: One Shot #1 Review – An Intriguing Beginning to a DCU-wide Mystery
Like everyone, I had one question when this was announced: “Why is this called Next Level: One Shot when it’s a Deadshot story?”. Usually, if you’re going to center a big, world changing one-shot around a character it’s Batman, Superman, or Wonder Woman. Someone in the big leagues, not someone like Deadshot. Someone not even in the big leagues of villainy, operating in the shadows, the grey areas of the DCU. An assassin sure, but with ties so deep to the Suicide Squad and Secret Six he’s almost been a hero at times. And that’s exactly who the DCU needs to unravel the mystery slowly enveloping everything.
Next Level: One Shot picks up with Deadshot on a tour of familiar DC locations, popping in on some of the leads of upcoming Next Level books while investigating a series of paranoid hints in a journal from Rick Flag. With Waller and the Suicide Squad off the board for a while now, Flag has gone dark to uncover a dark secret all stemming from CADMUS, that evil organisation thats always cloning people and things. After a series of sales they’re back to their usual business as a series of strange animal hybrids chases Flag down to stop him revealing their much darker plan to infiltrate the DCU. Their plan doesn’t just stop at Flag though, and CADMUS may not be the only player in the game as Deadshot stumbles into something much bigger than him as the DCU seems to face a Secret Invasion of its own.
Deadshot has been a favorite of mine ever since Secret Six, and Gerry Duggan (Deadpool, Marauders) gets his voice well. That specific blend of funny, asshole, and the occasional bit of reluctant heroics is right up Duggan’s lane with a lot of his Marvel work, and he captures it really well. While it’s not guaranteed, I’d be shocked if this issue isn’t leading to some sort of twisted take on the Suicide Squad with Deadshot as the lead, and if so I look forward to seeing him work more with the character. The mystery itself is compelling too, and, while not wholly original, it’s a nice mix of familiar tropes and DCU concepts that throws in enough unique twists at the end to avoid being too much of a retread of familiar ground. One of my favourite Marvel eras is the build up to Secret Invasion and the slow paranoia, the lack of trust amongst the heroes as they slowly unravelled everything. This issue promises something similar, and wherever it continues I’m excited to read it.
Fernando Blanco (WORLDTR33) is an artist I’ve been dying to see return to DC Comics ever since his work on James Tynion IVs Detective Comics, now almost a decade ago. It’s great to see how much Blanco has evolved as an artist since in this issue that jumps between paranoid thriller, typical superhero action, and to something a little more horror tinged, all of which are sold brilliantly by Blanco. The horror elements especially shine under Blanco’s pen, he does some incredible designs for the human/animal hybrid soldiers as well as some surprise villains that I look forward to seeing again. There’s some really great, unique Deadshot panelling with him zooming in on targets that’s one of the best drawn takes on the character’s abilities I’ve ever seen. Buddy Beaudoin is the letterer on the issue and complements Blanco’s style perfectly in this loose, sketchy style both on the regular text and especially the onomatopoeia effects, of which there are plenty. The colouring is done by Jordie Bellaire, who I’m pretty much running out of nice things to say about at this point. She’s so consistently one of the best in the business that just seeing her name on a cover is a guarantee that you’re going to get a stunning book, but her colours pair especially wonderfully with Blanco’s work.
While also a brief tour of the upcoming Next Level books, Next Level: One Shot is primarily the start of a compelling mystery that has me intrigued from the very beginning, and while I wish it was clearer just where it would be continuing, I’m excited to follow it, hopefully still under Duggan and Blanco’s pen who deliver a stunning looking and fun first chapter in what promises to be an exciting story affecting the whole DCU.
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