Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Bill Morrison
Artist: Bill Morrison
Editor: Daniel Chabon
Release date: 7 October 2015
Price: $3.99

Crusading radio journalist, Johnny Dover, aka John Doe, leads a one-man battle against Detroit’s infamous Purple Gang and wakes up ten years later as a preserved corpse in a carnival sideshow! What’s not to like about that scenario?

Dead Vengeance #1 has all the moreish classic comicbook traits: a Golden Age setting of 1940, carnival freaks, a mysterious gypsy woman lurking in the shadows, a noble hero whose selfless dedication to expose crime and corruption gets his wife killed and a macabre resurrection scene that would make Dr Frankenstein proud.

Minus points for Dead Vengeance #1, it’s too wordy and the parading of the backstory drags on a bit too long but having got that out of narrative here’s hoping the pace will hot up in the next issue.

In Dead Vengeance #1 few more touches of sly humour wouldn’t go amiss (look out for the panel that shows the kid’s reaction when he thinks he’s revived a real monster, it’s a hoot but blink and you’ll miss it). Dead Vengeance #1 has real promise; the only quibble is a need to focus more on action and less on dialogue.

 

Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker