The Deadman #2: Take A Look…It’s In A Book

The Deadman Next Level series continues to fire on all cylinders as the second issue lays the groundwork for the larger story while weaving in guest appearances, needed story exposition, all without disrupting the flow of Deadman’s journey.

The first page provides a primer from Rama Kushna on the concept of Spiritual Math, as she explains The Dynamics Of The Infallible or the differences of The Soul. Prince accomplishes this in a way (Rama teaching in a school) that boils these concepts to simple understanding that will come in to play as Deadman embarks on his mission. This, interspersed with a quick recap by Deadman explaining what transpired in the first issue to his ghostly pal with a detached head, Bobby, setting the stage for what is to come.

As Brand’s journey is leading him to Gotham, readers are treated to another bit of setup involving Batman and Plastic Man, who have been working on a case involving Lazarus pit resin smuggling. The creative team here and throughout the issue, show that they NEED to do a Plastic Man story in the near future. In a similar fashion as above, readers are introduced to the “villain” The Bibliophile, who has a Mega Memory for literature due to a hyper- photographic memory and was previously captured by Batman and Deadman in a previous adventure.

Prince plays with some well established Deadman possession of Batman tropes, while showing what Deadman encounters when he does this. This is done by having Brand encounter Batman Of Zur-En-Arrh, the psychological contingency backup personality of Bruce Wayne, leaving Deadman no choice but to takeover Plastic Man to gain entrance into Blackgate to speak to The Bibliophile. While it would have required more panel space and would have been an interesting thing to see, readers, through Brand’s monologue, are given a description of Plastic Man’s soul that surprises him is not elastic but full of positive karma.

As Plastic Man meets with Bibliophile, Mr. Bloom,  Scott Snyder’s New52 villian, grows and attacks the prison as Batman arrives, as he tries to figure out why Plastic Man ran off during their battle with the mummies. In the fight, Deadman gets to do his spiritual custodial duties, keeping Plastic Man’s soul from ascending before its time, while allowing the guards soul to follow a path into the afterlife.

Having saved Plastic Man, teaming up once again with Batman, and acquiring the information he was after, Deadman learns his next stop is the Underworld to learn more about the Hell-Spawn Interloper, who he is chasing.