DEADMAN #1

Not bad?for a dead guy and an outdated concept

By Tony Whitt     December 30, 2001

Boston Brand's still dead and loving it. Even though Rama's no longer around, he's still working with Max Loomis, doing private investigations with a slight advantage, and this time he's investigating the death of Benny Molton. Benny died overseas, but no one would let the coffin be opened when his body came back. Boston and Max soon discover there's more in the coffin than just a stiff?but then, you guessed that.

Sigh. I had some great expectations for this first issue: I wanted to see the tired old DEADMAN concept updated?or even "reimagined," with all the bad connotations that word carries nowadays. But Steve Vance and his creative team seem determined to keep Boston Brand the same exact way he was when he was first introduced in the '60s, though he feels much more like a '70s character here. Perhaps that's part of the problem?an uneasy whiff of the '70s clings to this book like polyester clings to sweaty skin after a night at Studio 54. Had DC introduced this as a Vertigo title, it might have had a shot at doing something new and different with this concept. Had Vance and company even gone the route of Mark Waid and Alex Ross with their slight redo of Deadman in KINGDOM COME, it would have been a welcome change. But this first issue is such a traditional Deadman story, it's like reading those old issues of STRANGE ADVENTURE all over again, and they weren't that good the first time.

There are some positive points of course. Apart from the (literal) trip down Memory Lane at the beginning of the book, the new title keeps the original Eastern mystical origins of the character at arm's length. Not that there's anything wrong with Eastern mysticism, mind you, but it always did seem like an unlikely starting place for such a concept. But soon the story degenerates into the same sort of "Boston against small-time thugs" runaround that this character has always had the misfortune to fall into.

Beroy and Green's artwork is equally uninspiring, taking virtually no risks and making absolutely no changes. Sadly, the art just lies there on the page, even during the few actions sequences. There's also no attempt to take advantage of the surrealism of the opening conversation between Max and Boston, which takes place in Max's head while he's in a near-death trance. This sequence simply aches for an alternative artistic style, but it's so traditional that it's boring.

While I'm glad to see Deadman finally getting his own series, I really hope the creators realize how much potential he has, and how much of that potential they've wasted in this first issue. At a time when so many other first issues are coming out in the DCU, and so many of those first issues offer new and exciting takes on older characters (such as CATWOMAN), DEADMAN really needs to be innovative and quick, or else it'll end up as dead as its main character.

DEADMAN

Grade: C

Issue: No. 1

Author(s): Steve Vance, Josep Beroy, Dan Green

Publisher: DC

Price: $2.50