Zenescope Entertainment 2016
Written by Joe Brusha
Illustrated by Marc Rosete
Coloured by Walter Pereyra
Lettered by Fabio Amelia
Death Force is literally pulled out of the fire by his new ally Missy Werner, who is on a mission to avenge her father’s untimely death, caused by the corruption of Mayor Deveraux. Soon after, a battle with a SWAT team leads to a confrontation between Death Force and the
monster that dwells inside Talon. With the lives of thousands on the line, can Missy and Death Force make it out with their own?
Maybe it’s just me but why does the demon keep using his name, it seems kind of redundant to keep using that much when we all know whom he means after the first time. Meh otherwise hey this issue was an improvement for me. I like the way the story progresses, the pacing is good and I found myself more interested in what was happening. Now that Rick and Missy have met and the story becomes bigger and more involved it’s playing out on the pages much better.
The fight to open the book is a holdover from last issue where we left off. It’s not a bad fight and i’m kind of surprised that the demon ran off so quickly but then again he did it in such grand fashion that it sure made one heck of a statement. I really enjoyed what happened next inside Missy’s van. As she and Rick are mapping out what to do they get a surprise visitor and new ally in Roberts, Rick’s old partner.
Suddenly the conspiracy is out in the open and while Missy’s actions start to bear fruit a plan is in place to start dealing with what’s happening. It’s like suddenly the story is clicking into place and it’s exciting now. With the build up of what’s to come looming we are getting into the meaty stuff and this is where Joe is shining right now. The slower paced getting into the story lacked a bit of oomph so it’s nice to see that the latter half is compensating for that start.
Marc’s interiors here are a huge draw for me. Aside from Missy’s outfit which I can’t decide if it’s supposed to be Hipster (hat, scarf and bare midriff) or just plain let’s show a little skin. His eye for storytelling and the way he uses the panels throughout the pages to control the flow of the story with angles and perspective and what I love the most the use of backgrounds is extremely well done. He brings a lot of emotion and feeling to the work here and it makes the story much enjoyable to see through all this attention to detail.
This story still confirms what I really enjoy about the company lately and that’s it’s move to smarter more intelligent storytelling and less cheesecake. The corruption and use of gangs and power plays we are seeing here are things we can relate to seeing on the news even if the solution is purely comics. So it’s good to see that we have this male lead character who’s something of a badass and draws a supporting cast that he can rely on who are ordinary people with skills that allow them to do extraordinary things.
While this may work better as a trade, ie all read at once, it’s worth reading as it’s getting stronger as it goes on.