DCeased: Hope at worlds end

[sifighter]

how many issues is this supposed to be?

The press release said 14 chapters, we just got chapter 8 so 6 more issues are left to go.

[Gaius]

No. Ace is bruce's dog while Titus belongs to Damian.

Both are currently in Tec and while Titus is a member of the Rebirth Super Pets Squad led by DC. The current Ace is a retired fighting dog now house pet who was rescued from the pound by Alfred and was a Christmas gift to Bruce.

Cassie only became a key figure in DCeased so that might explain why the discussion isn't gaining traction on the WW forum

Well, Taylor is one of the worst WW writers in the past decade so he's probably been done a favor with his work not being discussed there.

[sifighter]

Another new issue out today, which was pretty cool and kind of a built up of what we have seen before along with some interesting new elements.

First we get what I think is a funnier moment of Jimmy letting Superman know he knew who he was all along, good to have some nice humor. We then get into some serious conversation which boils down to, why are we moving humanity into two locations when undead can track life and why isn’t Superman just burning the undead with his vision. Basically it’s not that simple because some heroes, and especially Talia and Luthor really do think just killing the undead should be the plan. Of course Superman is going to be Superman and refuses to kill no matter what.

We also get a new element in the form of a Flash character, the Pied Piper and his flute, who may not be able to control the undead but can kind of magically draw them in, thankfully a still alive Martian Manhunter is still available to save the day and it looks like Pied Piper is going to be important to the story surprisingly enough.

[silly]

Another new issue out today, which was pretty cool and kind of a built up of what we have seen before along with some interesting new elements.

First we get what I think is a funnier moment of Jimmy letting Superman know he knew who he was all along, good to have some nice humor. We then get into some serious conversation which boils down to, why are we moving humanity into two locations when undead can track life and why isn’t Superman just burning the undead with his vision. Basically it’s not that simple because some heroes, and especially Talia and Luthor really do think just killing the undead should be the plan. Of course Superman is going to be Superman and refuses to kill no matter what.

We also get a new element in the form of a Flash character, the Pied Piper and his flute, who may not be able to control the undead but can kind of magically draw them in, thankfully a still alive Martian Manhunter is still available to save the day and it looks like Pied Piper is going to be important to the story surprisingly enough.

Pied Piper was interesting. Although being able to attract the undead seems to have very low survivability rate.

[sifighter]

Pied Piper was interesting. Although being able to attract the undead seems to have very low survivability rate.

I mean yeah if you’re the pied piper alone then outlook looks bad, but if you have the surviving superhuman community on your side you might stand a chance.

[gambit2051]

a still alive Martian Manhunter is still available to save the day

I have been wondering HOW they got J'onn since that explosive entrance in volume 1. Since i saw him in whichever issue he was in 1st during This Series, i have been sitting on pins with anticipation. Only because of ALL of the Heroes, his Power Set honestly seems the Safest, even compared to Superman or Black Adam.

[sifighter]

Alright new issue today and it’s pretty much everything goes to hell (again) and some social commentary....it’s not a bad thing it just is what it is. I mean there is a literal scene where Damian is fighting a guy where he says “we are fighting the undead, we don’t have time to fight ignorance.” If that’s not some commentary I don’t know what is. Also I’m surprised anyone would even want to hold a phone after the internet is done and technology caused the anti-life apocalypse...but hey morons in a zombie movie right.

Anyway besides that basically what we have here is some of the younger generation have been tasked with protecting refugees before they get to the safe zones. It’s atom-smasher, Talia Al-Ghul, Jaime Reyes, Stephanie Brown, Cassie Sandsmark, Damian Wayne and Jon Kent....and later Black Manta. Of course it wouldn’t be DCeased if things didn’t go wrong and Black Adam shows up with the Horde, leaving our handful of heroes to survive an onslaught with the Justice League preoccupied. I don’t know about you but I’d be a little worried for those who aren’t in Dead Planet.

[TheMaker1610]

Alright new issue today and it’s pretty much everything goes to hell (again) and some social commentary....it’s not a bad thing it just is what it is. I mean there is a literal scene where Damian is fighting a guy where he says “we are fighting the undead, we don’t have time to fight ignorance.” If that’s not some commentary I don’t know what is. Also I’m surprised anyone would even want to hold a phone after the internet is done and technology caused the anti-life apocalypse...but hey morons in a zombie movie right.

Anyway besides that basically what we have here is some of the younger generation have been tasked with protecting refugees before they get to the safe zones. It’s atom-smasher, Talia Al-Ghul, Jaime Reyes, Stephanie Brown, Cassie Sandsmark, Damian Wayne and Jon Kent....and later Black Manta. Of course it wouldn’t be DCeased if things didn’t go wrong and Black Adam shows up with the Horde, leaving our handful of heroes to survive an onslaught with the Justice League preoccupied. I don’t know about you but I’d be a little worried for those who aren’t in Dead Planet.

It was nice to see Steph here..

[Digifiend]

I see the name DCeased didn't translate very well. In at least one language, it's called DCsos.

[sifighter]

I see the name DCeased didn't translate very well. In at least one language, it's called DCsos.

I mean DC SOS isn’t a bad title per se....no but I get it being a tough title to translate given the fact it it is a deliberate misspelling.

[sifighter]

Well after a long day it’s nice to come back to one my favorite series with a new issue. So this issue is well honestly just a horde issue. Basically it’s a giant zombie swarm led by Black Adam and Atom Smasher....I guess Hawkman is there but he shows up for a panel is not really a huge power level threat. Look basically Superboy(Jon), Wondergirl(Cassie), Batman(Damian), Blue Beetle (Jaime), Robin (Stephanie Brown), Black Manta, and Talia Al Ghul to save the lives of everyone on an island from a horde.

Honestly it’s a lot of cool fights, some good character moments, and honestly no shocking deaths. The worse that actually happens is that we see how Jimmy Olsen gets his eye scare from the first issue.

[sifighter]

It’s that time again, and as we draw near the end of this series we get some big moments of heroism, despair and death. Two big things happened in this issue and while one leads directly into events of the first series the other is a cliffhanger we have no idea where it will lead.

spoilers:

Alright so after Superman comes to save his boy from the horde, other heroes (Green Lantern Canary, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Barry Allen, and Wallace West) there is a big fight to save the people. Unfortunately what happens is that Black Manta gets infected, and he ends up causing the worst damage. He kills Stephanie Brown (Robin) with his lasers and then destroys a ship which leaves Martian Manhunter stranded in flames trying to save people...where he then gets infected by Black Adam, thus the tragic end to Martian Manhunter as he mentally connects his death to our heroes and phases through the bottom of ocean before he turns. Of course if you’ve read the main series you know he will be back. As for Stephanie Damian is sad because he’s lost another family member but then Talia decides to be a decent mother and let’s us know one important thing...there’s a Lazarus pit, and since Stephanie didn’t die to the virus like Bruce Wayne or the others so it’s possible to bring her back. We just have to wait and see if Talia succeeds.

end of spoilers

[sifighter]

I forgot to update for issue #13 this week, also for those who do not know Taylor extended this series to 15 issues so now there are two more issues instead of 1. And I will say that this issue is predominantly Lex Luthor's....with a bit of Jimmy Olsen mixed in.

spoilers:

Basically the horde lead by Black Adam is coming for our heroes at the Gotham Garden and basically it comes down to fight between Superman and Lex Luthor, Lex wanting to kill black adam and bomb the anti-living while Superman wants nothing to do with it. And after Lex basically starts to leave he's stopped by Jimmy who basically challenges Luthor to use his big brain to come up with a better solution to win the day. And so in order to buy time Lex goes to Wallace West to spend 6 minutes, apparently days in the speed force, to think of a plan....a plan that comes down to the Pied Piper, Wink from Taylor's Suicide Squad, and Wonder Woman and it is heavily stated that Piper and Wink will die as they spend possible last moments with loved ones. But then we get to the scene from the first issue with Jimmy putting up pictures wanting to heroes to be remembered as he's talking to Superman...and Superman states that somehow Jimmy played Lex Luthor and that Superman is very aware of what Lex has planned, of course that could just be me reading into things. Honestly, I can't wait to see what happens with two issues left and a big fight is on the way.

end of spoilers

[sifighter]

Alright this is it, the penultimate issue of Hope at worlds end, and while at this point you know exactly where these characters are going because of the original series and the sequel, I’m still having fun with this and I think it helps expand on some characters and relationships in the DCeased world. I mean personally I like that Cassie Sandsmark is here because in the original she just kind of flew in on the last issue, but here she’s helping out in key moments and showing her budding friendship with Damian and Jon so it feels a lot more earned then in Dead Planet.

So basically Black Adam and his horde have come, and so it’s a fight issue with moments like Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Canary, Superboy, and Wonder Girl all beating on Black Adam. While that’s going on Luthor is enacting his plan, he’s having pied piper and Wink teleport and attract the anti-life in a bid to kill nightshade and trap a horde from the look of it. It looks cooler then I’m making it sound.

But either way there is only one issue out next week, where we will see what will happen and perhaps if Stephanie Brown will end up revived.

[sifighter]

Oh wow I must’ve been busy because I forgot to sum this up when it ended a little while back. Oh well, what can you do but quick summary which is that we get a happy ending of sorts that we know doesn’t matter for much because of the last two issues of DCeased but is still kind of nice to see the heroes come out on top a little bit in an alternate reality apocalypse series.

So I will say this as someone who really likes the DCeased series, is this series necessary reading for the series? Yes and No honestly. A lot of this series is just events that transpired during missing weeks in the original series so really you could just skip right over this no problem. However I think some of the issues are really well written, issues 3, 4 & 5 are my favorite because Taylor wrote one of the best Wally West stories I’ve read in a while and 4 & 5 really explore Damian first becoming Batman and the new Trinity of Damian, Jon, & Cassie. I personally think this series does better for Cassie Sandsmark because in the original series she just kind of shows up at the end and then she becomes a much bigger deal in Dead Planet as the new Wonder Woman, so having a series that shows her helping out the heroes and forming a friendship with Jon and Damian really helped out a bit. I also think it’s a nice subversion from the normal apocalyptic alternate universe storyline, because at the end of the day our heroes still save the day and still act like the heroes we know and love.

I think that if you are a fan of DCeased and you have a few bucks to spend, because this series isn’t expensive with only 99 cents per issue at 15 issues (that’s like a little over $16 with tax I think), so I think it’s worth a read at least.

Edit: Taylor confirmed a 2021 hardcover collection

https://mobile.twitter.com/TomTaylor...46674399080448