DCeased: Dead Planet #1 – A Signal of Hope?

Tom Taylor is a special writer as like his Injustice title, he has now taken an interesting concept and turned it into a unique world with an ever-growing fan following. He achieves this with unprecedented scenarios full of twists and turns with scenes and narrative that puts the reader through an emotional roller-coaster, fans better get strapped in again because thankfully Dead Planet does not take the foot off the pedal.

This is a complete sequel therefore reading what came before will be very beneficial we even start off with a quick nod or ‘don’t forget’  follow up to the one shot ‘A good day to die’ in which we see John Constantine drinking in guilt which helps open the narrative into the 5 year jump in this story in which we see the demolished Cyborg after his encounter with the infected Wonder Woman sending out a cry for help.

Now we get our introduction to the new Justice League defending New Metropolis which hosts the survivors of the Earth outbreak. The dialogue and continued banter Tom Taylor kept between an older Jon and Damian who are now coming into their own taking the mantles up from there deceased fathers here was one of the highlights of the book for me. It keeps true to their characters and intelligent side humor any book like this requires.

After the League receive this distress signal and are assembled in the new hall of justice, I again must give credit to Mr. Taylor as the anxious dialogue and sense of distress in trying to be decisive between the team in whether or not to answer this call is outstanding. Some want to keep fighting for what they had while others want to fight for what they have. Genius.

Before the venture back to Earth we get a heartwarming moment in the discovered survival and reunion between Krypto and Jon thankfully because nobody ever wants to see anything bad happen the dog in the story.

In the closing segments of the book the we return to the insane twists and action levels the original series was renowned for as upon arriving the League discover the distress call was from Cyborg. Its not long until they are joined by the infected Diana prince who in a moment of flurry and disorientation gets hold of Oliver and infects him whilst Jon is trying to decipher the words of a mumbling Cyborg. This causes Dinah in a moment of rage to retrieve the god killing sword and strike down on Wonder Woman but during this Jon found out from Cyborg what we the readers knew – there is a cure – he tried to stop Dinah but got caught in the crossfire and the book ends with an image of an impaled Superman and Wonder Woman. What a way to begin this series.