DCeased: A Marriage of Capes and Zombies Done Correctly

Mainstream comics are not in a good place right now. Even before the global pandemic was unleashed upon humanity, the decline of modern comics was a problem that anyone who reads any title be it independent or from the big two couldn’t help but notice. As a dedicated DC fan, I still try to support the label even though the majority of their creative decisions make it a very difficult chore.

Thus, when DC took their shot at a zombie apocalypse last May with DCeased, I was rather skeptical. Marvel had already taken a crack at the zombie genre fifteen years ago and felt the need to produce six sequels to the original Marvel Zombies that mostly felt like puffed up, over-glorified issues of “What If”. Somehow, Marvel managed to take zombies, which had already over-saturated all of the mainstream media (seriously, when there are zombies in Call of Duty games, you know it’s gone too far) and make them even more tiresome.

Thankfully, being late to the zombie party paid off for DC as DCeased is an absolute joy to read. The creative team of Tom Taylor (Injustice), Trevor Hairsine (Legends of the Dark Knight) and Stefano Gaudiano (The Walking Dead) come together to craft a thrilling tale of how the major players of the DC universe would deal with an end of days scenario and the emotional toll it would take on them.

What I love most about this series is that it’s not just another generic ‘the dead have risen’ story. There is a legitimate cause of this zombie outbreak that makes perfect sense within the 80 plus years of the DC universe’s canon. To put it simply, even though the story takes place outside the primary DC universe, it could easily have taken place within it.

My only complaint with this mini-series is that it felt too short at just six issues. It was easily good enough to warrant an additional two issues. Thankfully, an additional one-shot titled “A Good Day to Die” was released which provided a self-contained story detailing how some of the lesser-known heroes of DC dealt with the situation while the Justice League was occupied elsewhere.

This stand-alone even features a prominent appearance by a certain trench coat sporting, chain-smoking, petty dabbler in the dark arts of whom our head editor here at M3 is a big fan. The trade paperback release contains all six issues of the main story and the one-shot.

I seriously can’t recommend this series enough. The stellar writing combined with the outstanding art creates a tale that anyone from long time comic fans, zombie enthusiast, and people looking to get into comics will absolutely enjoy.

Be sure to keep an eye out for the three-issue DCeased Unkillables which tells the story of how the villains of the DC universe deal with the zombie outbreak. As long as DC doesn’t pull a Marvel with their take on the living dead, this series will very likely stand out as one of the very best non-primary DC universe series in recent years.

Read more on Monsters, Madness and Magic here: Kieron Gillen’s ‘Once& Future Vol. 1’ is a Masterfully Mixed Arthurian Amalgamation