Deathmatch, Demo

Deathmatch 1-12

Paul Jenkins writes and Carlos Magno draws this miniseries.  Thirty-two of the world’s biggest heroes and villains (pretty much all DC and Marvel analogs) are teleported to an unknown location and forced to fight each other to the death in a March Madness-style elimination tournament.  (It’s Secret Wars with more killing.)

On top of that is the mystery - No one knows what’s going on when they’re in the staging area, but once they enter the battle arena, their memories are restored and they understand why they need to kill each other, no matter if their opponents are friends, enemies, or lovers.  When the victor emerges alone, their memory is erased once more.

It’s a riveting setup, and feelings of dread and helplessness cast a shadow over everyone, as does the desperate need to find answers before thirty-one superbeings end up dead.  Each death ramps the tension up further and further.

Jenkins does a great job of creating counterparts to classic comic book characters while simultaneously given each of them unique backstories that I’m sorry I can’t explore in more detail.  Rat’s the Rorschach of this universe, and he may actually be even more hardcore than Alan Moore’s iconic character.

Hardcore place to hide a weapon.

Metal wire is hard to talk to.

Magno’s art is perfect for this series.  It reminds me of Gene Ha and Bryan Talbot, and successfully tackles everything Jenkins asks of it.  I particularly like how he depicts Melody Toon’s (Banshee) solution for using her sonic scream to kill Mink (Robin) in a vacuum.

Love the musical notes as actual FX.

Unfortunately, the reveal of the mystery is a bit of a letdown.  Manchurian’s (Reed Richards) idea is reminiscent of Ozymandias’ master scheme in Watchmen, where everyone, friend and foe alike, is an expendable pawn in his “I know better than everyone else” plan.  I’m left slight dissatisfied at the end. I’m still not sure why only one person could return from the Deathmatch facility.  Credit to Jenkins, most of my frustration has to do with the emotional investment he’s created. Both Dragonfly (Spider-Man) and Sable (Batman) are characters that I’ve grown to like over the course of the run, and I’m sad that one of them has to die.  

Overall, a really strong work by the creative team.  It had been long enough since my initial read that all the surprises were just as effective the second time around.  Very happy to have this in my collection.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Good

Demo 1-12

I remembered very little of this Brian Wood/Becky Cloonan collaboration.  I thought that this would be a prime cut candidate, but they proved me wrong.  Demo is a series of twelve short stories, each one about a young adult with a superpower.  The role of the person’s ability in each story varies in significance. Some of the issues that stood out:

Issue 5: The lead girl’s appearance changes to match the heart’s desire of her beholder.  Ignoring the question of what happens when multiple people are looking at her simultaneously, it’s a thought-provoking setup.  What’s it like when no one sees you for who you really are? What happens when you meet someone who does? Does is mean they’re your soulmate?  The premise is much better than the story execution, but I still liked this a lot.

Issue 8: Let’s say you could remember every moment of your past relationships with perfect clarity?  Would the good bits or the bad bits dominate your mind? It’s a variation on Eternal Sunshine.

Issue 11: Wood says in the afterword that this issue is supposed to be funny.  He and I have very different definitions, because I found nothing amusing in this episode about three slackers, two of whom are trying to improve their lot in life while the third wants things to stay exactly the same.

Issue 12: A Brooklyn couple spend a perfect day together, then jump off a building to their deaths.  Total bullshit with a pretentious poem that’s supposed to elevate it to art. Utter fail.

The overall theme seems to be “Powers or not, life is depressing and shitty for everyone.”  It’s not necessarily fun, but I appreciate the art of what Wood and Cloonan have created. (Exceptt for the last issue, which ironically tried the hardest.)     

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice