Want to see the apocalypse on an unprecedented scale? Then you should be reading DCeased

How safe would you feel if superheroes were real? Would you take comfort in knowing that Superman just threw a cosmic titan into space where it could do no harm? Maybe you’d rest easy knowing that if you were horribly murdered, at least Batman would avenge the hell out of you when he got his hands on the neck of the Joker. Inspiration could come from seeing the Flash run past you and hit you with a morale-boosting smile or maybe you’d want to do better if you crossed paths with Swamp Thing.

Heroes may be inspirational, but they’re also a safety blanket that we’d probably want to wrap ourselves up in given the chance. Gods who serve the greater good, icons who fight for truth and justice. In DCeased, they’re also the harbinger of an apocalypse that nobody could see coming. Here’s the scenario: Dread god of evil Darkseid has managed to get his hands on the Anti-Life Equation.

Only problem? It ain’t called Anti-Life for no good reason. Driven mad, becoming patient zero for a universal threat and literally trying to claw the anti-life virus out of his own rocky skin, it’s not long before the formula for tyranny makes its way to Earth and starts infecting the populace through the internet. Every phone is a weapon, all heroes are ticking time bombs at risk of being infected and there’s no happy ending in sight as the death toll increases and drastic measures are carried out.

How do you even begin to plan for a global catastrophe that infects billions within minutes? Can the day even be saved, or is Earth doomed? Writer Tom Taylor is no stranger to penning tales that feature devastating odds for the heroes present, but there’s a certain sense of inevitability that rises up with each and every page as the cost of saving a few people while hordes numbering in unthinkable size ravage the world.

Legends fall, desperate plans are made and stalwart heroes who’ve never wavered once from their moral code are forced to make life or death decisions to help save millions of innocent souls. Trevor Hairsine rises to the occasion, delivering knockout splash pages, intimate moments between heroes and a gritty dismay that permeates the land, brilliantly blending large scale action with emotion on a level that makes you feel for the heroes who are tasked to do the impossible.

It’s the darkest tomorrow yet for DC Comics, and with a single issue left that’s ready to take flight after a shocking ending, you just know that nobody is going to walk away unscathed once the dust has settled on an apocalypse where the only cure may be hope.

Last Updated: October 3, 2019