DEAD BODY ROAD review

(Reviewed by Melody Werner)
Dead Body Road is a six issue miniseries published by Image Comics/Skybound Entertainment, written by Justin Jordan (who also did Luther Strode) and illustrated by Matteo Scalera (who has since gone on to do Black Science). As you may recall, I loved Jordan's first volume of Luther Strode (Strange Talent), but was iffy on the second (Legend). Dead Body Road is billed as a crime-action, apparently inspired by John Woo action films. Considering those factors, it'd stand to reason that this could've been an at least decent series, but as I'm about to explain, it really isn't imo.

The art's quality is mixed--decent in some parts, ugly in others. It sort of works for what's supposed to be going on, but it lacks detail and it's all over the place with tons of visual noise, leading to some games of eye pinball and the series definitely feels sloppier because of this. The action is okay-ish, though the sheer amount of visual noise as mentioned does hinder what could've been pretty cool action. I think Scalera and Moreno Dinisio (the colorist) are far better suited to the bonkers, pulpy sci-fi adventure of Black Science.

The plot is so uneventful and boring and uncompelling, I almost fell asleep. It's full of archaic and tiresome cliches, such as the "token white hero whose wife is dead and he wants revenge" and "plot essential torture sequences that would never work in real life because torture doesn't fucking work in almost any case". The twists are boring and I wasn't invested at all in how it developed. And this is worsened by the absolutely abysmal cast of characters. These are all bland, boring, one-note walking cliches with no personality, spouting a bunch of bullshit tough talk to shroud the lacking of complexity, believability, or depth. Oh, and the dialogue's shit too. As I already mentioned, it's a bunch of bullshit tough talk that would intimidate nobody--stuff you'd expect from a five year old who's just seen an R-rated movie when they try and act badass and completely fail.

Dead Body Road is a disappointing comic, considering how the creative team's shown themselves to be pretty fucking great and we don't get a lot of high adrenaline, action-focused series outside of smaller publishers. But it's just a load of shit. Dead Body Road gets a 3/10.

Horrid

Summary:
A cursed series that wears the skin of its inspirations, but it's only skin deep. Lackluster art, okay action, shit plot, shit characters, and shit dialogue consign it to the toilet.