Comic Review – Deathmatch #1

                Deathmatch has the interesting (and relatively overused) concept of pitting characters against one another in a winner-take-all fight, gladiator-style.  We are currently seeing this from Marvel in the form of Avengers Arena, though my embargo on Marvel titles has prevented me from actually reading it.  The main challenge that I can see here is getting the reader to care about the characters, especially in this instance where Paul Jenkins, the writer, has established detailed backstories for every combatant, but they are completely new to us. Sure, there are the archetypes, you can see the Superman character, the Thor character, even a patriotic character, though he looks a tad more armored up than I have ever seen Captain America.  Beyond the archetypes, these are all new characters, so Jenkins faces an uphill battle in terms of getting us to not only care about his take on an established plot device, but also care about a brand new set of characters that we have never met.  Being that this is a winner take all event (presumably) I am sure that Boom Studios (the publisher) would like us to have a rooting interest in a character or two as well to keep us coming back for more.

Cover:

                Cover A is by industry legend Whilce Portacio.  While the pose is dynamic, albeit a little silly (who really holds a gun like that?) it is a cover that is not only devoid of any semblance of relevance to the story contained in the interior, it’s also a bit misleading.  The premise of the book is that these characters fight to the death in a controlled environment while the other heroes and villains watch them on giant screens.  This cover makes it look like the patriotic guy has just murdered someone in cold blood in front of a live audience.  This may be foreshadowing to a later instance, but I have a feeling someone gave Whilce a quick rundown of the major plot-points and a couple character drawings and said “go to town”.  That may also explain the total lack of background.  The coloring is decent and does a good job of separating the foreground, middleground and background, but I have trouble getting over the deceptive nature of the narrative qualities in the cover itself. 

3/10- It’s a decent overall illustration but the lack of background combined with the misleading nature of any narrative in the cover is a shame.  I expect more from my superstar artists.

Story:

                I trust Paul Jenkins.  I have read his Marvel work from back in the day (Inhumans, Sentry) mainly for Jae Lee’s art, but those were incredible miniseries in all aspects.  I came into this expecting a good story at least, regardless of the obvious challenges that lie ahead.  What I got instead, from the first page, was a great story, with interesting characters.  Jenkins does an incredible job of weaving character’s backstories in with the action of the main story, getting me to care about the characters and feel genuinely uneasy upon the conclusion of the second match.  The best part is that this is not just a pair them up and let them fight book.  There is a certain amount of story going on behind the scenes that contributes to the mystery of who is behind setting these people up and why that is just as intriguing as the characters themselves.  I would like to see how he continues this as the “main” character of this issue, Dragonfly, was the winner of the first match.  Whether Jenkins continues to follow his story or not is going to determine how successful this turns out to be.  It would be difficult, in my opinion, to jump from character to character without one, across the board, main character that we can identify with, and in a series that is supposedly seeing 31 characters die, that would be hard to do. 

8/10- I am cautiously optimistic that in the hands of Jenkins this will turn out great, but there are a lot of roadblocks to navigate before I proclaim this a sure-fire hit, regardless of how well this one issue was written. 

Art:

                Carlos Magno exudes a kind of Carlos D’Anda quality in his art that I really enjoy.  The fact that it is so detailed while being so clean just makes for an incredible reading experience.  The storytelling is decent and is in no way distracting.  The backgrounds and characters are both wonderfully rendered.  Hell, he even does a great job on the characters that are not entirely human.  I am generally someone that prefers a more cartoony/animated feel to my comic art (seriously, if I wanted to look at photographs I would look at photographs) but this art is both realistic with just enough of a European flair to it to make it stand out.  Honestly, I think I would have rather seen the art in just black and white as opposed to color as some of the smaller details are lost in the coloring.  This is not the colorist’s fault as Michael Garland does a good job himself, but more of a personal preference thing. 

9/10- The art is great, probably my favorite part of the book.  Coming in cold without seeing any of the interior art, I wasn’t expecting much but was more than pleasantly surprised.

Overall:  8/10- This is well worth the $1 for the first issue and if it keeps up the pace and quality in subsequent issues it will be well worth the $3.99 that it is sure to go up to.