This is DCeased: War of the Undead Gods. It is Written by Tom Taylor and the Prime Illustrator is Trevor Hairsine. Other Illustrators for this book are Neil Edwards and Lucas Meyer. The Inker for Trevor Hairsine’s art is Andy Lanning. The Coloring is done by Rain Beredo and the Lettering is done by Saida Temofonte. The story is the third and final main installement of the DCeased series. Trigger Warning: This book conatins elements that one might consider disturbing such as extreme violence and gore. Readers discretion is advised. After the events of DCeased: Dead Planet, a cure has been developed for the Anti-Life Zombie Virus. A glimmer of hope has finally appeared on our heroes and on the world at large. But that hope is short lived, as Darkseid and his Army of Undead Gods travel the mulitverse, corrupting everything in their path. It is up to our heroes, and the whole multiverse at large, to take Darkseid out. Is it possible, and is there more going on with the Anti-Life Zombie Viruse?
I will admit, the DCeased series has been conflicting for me. I really love the first one, but Dead Planet I found to be pretty forgettable. But I did enjoy this final installement, even though it does have problems. The biggest thing that this book gets right is that zombie apocalypse stories are about the uninfected characters. Each character has an emotional moment and arc which makes them quite relatable. I love how the legacy characters get a big push as well. Damian Wayne is Batman, Jon Kent is Superman, and Cassie Sandmark is Wonder Woman in this book and their chemistry with one another is pretty engaging. The Undead Gods are also pretty cool, even though they don’t get much time given to them. Even Darkseid doesn’t get much time given, who is the main atagonist.
My biggest problem for this book is that it can feel really crowded at times. There is a lot of arcs and story beats that go on within this book. It causes some of the book to feel somewhat rushed because everything, both old and new, has to be concluded by the end of this book. It also causes major character in previous installements to have very little time in this book. It can be rather frustrating if you were fans of these versions of the characters. One thing that I will add is that when these characters are used, it is usually for highly emotional moments. Which Tom Taylor is best at.
Spoiler Alert: One aspect of the story that I found interesting was how they changed the Anti-Life Zombie Virus. The weird thing is that it isn’t a virus at all. It is a direct connection with Erebos, the personification of darkness. I don’t really know how to feel about this development. On one hand, it doesn’t really affect much of the story. But on the other, it really didn’t need to happen and just fells like it was only added to bring in a big bad at the end. One thing that I absolutley love about this book is Alfred. In the first installement, Alfred killed the zombified versions of some of the Batfamily. So when he learns that there was a cure, he is crushed. What happens with his character is quite heartbreaking but so interesting. It is one of my favorite parts of this book.
Another Spoiler Warning: But my absolute favorite parts of this book are the beginning and ending moments. The opening scene with Supergirl was amazingly done. It is a great subversion of expectations and it sets the tone beautifully. Now for the ending. I believe that the final issue for this book is the best one of the entire series. It takes every character arc from the beginning of this series and ends it in a way that makes sense. It has the most heartbreaking character moments between Damian, Cassie, and Jon. And it has the best art in the series. Overall, it is a fantastic final issue.
For the art in this book, it is quite good. Trevor Hairsine’s more dirty and gritty style adds itself well to the tone of this book. And when I say dirty, it is a good thing. It uses rougher linework which makes all the gorier moments that much more extreme. Where I feel the art folters is when the fill-in artist come in. Not to say that the two fill-in artists are bad, but their styles are far too clean to fit the tone of this book. It is very noticeable when Hairsine’s art switches to one of the fill-in artists. But overall, the art for this book is great, just like the other installements of the series.
Overall, this book is one of the better installements to this series. It has its problems, but it makes up for them with great character moments and beatiful gore. For the series overall, I’ve liked it a lot. My main concern with it was that it would be needless gore for gore’s sake. But they have a lot of heart to them along with the incredible violence. I would highly recommend that you pick this series of books up if you are a fan of the zombie genre.