DCeased: Hope at World’s End #1
Written by Tom Taylor
Art by Dustin Nguyen and Rex Lokus
Lettering by Saida Temofonte
Published by DC
Review by David Pepose
‘Rama Rating: 8 out of 10
The Anti-Life Equation continues its merciless shuffle forward in DCeased: Hope at World’s End #1, as writer Tom Taylor and artist Dustin Nguyen deliver a moving interstitial that bridges the gap between the superhero apocalypse of the first DCeased series and its upcoming sequel in June. Telling the story from the eyes of Jimmy Olsen, Taylor and Nguyen are mainly bringing readers up to speed with this first installment, but as far as mood-setting is concerned, they do a great job at getting readers invested.
Evoking bits of Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross’s classic man-on-the-street storytelling of Marvels, seeing Taylor’s characterization of self-described “war photographer” Jimmy Olsen feels like a strong fit for this universe, feeling just distinct enough from Lois Lane’s superhero-focused narration of the first series. Jimmy straddles the goofy sidekick persona of the Nick Spencer and Matt Fraction years to the crazy photographer characterization of J. Michael Straczynski’s run — he’s irreverent one moment, but preternaturally calm when the chips suddenly fall. When his first reaction to watching the Daily Planet explode into self-infected virus is snapping a picture, you really see what an interesting character that would be to follow to the end of the world.
That said, given the truncated structure of a digital-first distribution, some longtime DCeased readers might feel like they’ve seen much of this before. Taylor has a lot of narrative ground to cover, so the use of Jimmy’s photos as a sort of montage helps paint the gist of the bombastic original series, but as moving as the narration may be, it still sometimes feels like the clip show version of the previous series. That said, Taylor does throw in an interesting curveball at the end of the issue, one that ominously shows that Jimmy and company might not make it to the new world unscathed.
But what’s most interesting about this book has to be Dustin Nguyen’s artwork. An artist who’s usually known for his clean, cartoony figures, it’s pretty impressive to see how scratchy and blotted he’s able to make this haunting zombie-adjacent world. It’s a great contrast, for example, seeing the rampaging Daily Planet staffers descend into a sort of inhuman mess of blood and scarring, while clean-cut Jimmy stands out among the pack for being the only one without a scratch. It’s almost a mercy for readers, who might be jarred by gruesome depictions of DC’s iconic heroes being dismembered and driven to madness — Nguyen adds so much rendering that you can tell just by looking at them that our fallen heroes aren’t really here anymore.
For those whose superhero-zombie itch hasn’t been sufficiently scratched by Taylor’s Unkillables series, DCeased: Hope at World’s End #1 will likely be a good way to hold you over until DCeased: Dead Planet hits the scene. Taylor continues to find new angles to explore this bleak new world, and Nguyen proves to be one of the most interesting artists to tackle this fallen universe of rampaging titans. Clocking in at just a dollar, DCeased: Hope at World’s End #1 feels like an Anti-Life Equation for success.