This is it. After several prequel tie-ins and six issues of this series preceding it we are finally reached the end of the story for DCeased: Dead Planet. Last we left things we saw Constantine use the powers of the most powerful magical items in the DC Universe to become the ultimate magician in order to take on Trigon. But while Constantine has possibly turned the tide against Trigon our heroes still have to figure out how to distribute the cure to the Anti-Life Equation Virus while also fight Professor Ivo’s new Amazo army. How will things end? Let’s find out with DCeased: Dead Planet #7.
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Trevor Hairsine
Inkers: Gigi Baldassini and Stefano Gaudiano
Colorist: Rain Beredo
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: All over the world an army of Amazos kill all of the Anti-Living. Batgirl-Shazam (Cassandra Cain) and Wonder Woman (Cassie Sandsmark) lead the heroes against the Amazos.
Meanwhile, Phantom Stranger and Zatanna confront Trigon in Paris.
Over in Australia Superman (Jonathan Kent) and Batman (Damian Wayne) arrive at the stronghold where Professor Ivo is at. An Amazo speeds in and attacks both of them. Superman and Batman quickly work together to destroy the Amazo.
Superman and Batman then demand to see Professor Ivo. Penguin orders the stronghold guards to kill Superman and Batman. The guards say they aren’t doing that.
Penguin, Simon Stagg, and several others in the stronghold suddenly get their souls taken from their bodies.
Outside the stronghold Constantine is shown absorbing the souls of the corrupted individuals into Ragman’s cloak to power him up. Superman confronts Constantine about what he is planning to do. Constantine reveals he has looked into all possible futures and saw this as the best way to fight Trigon. Superman offers to help but Constantine says that if Superman helps he will die.
Inside the stronghold Batman finds Professor Ivo, who has been killed by Penguin before they got there. After thanking the guards for not turning on them Superman and Batman take the head of the Amazo they destroyed to figure out a way to stop the Amazo army.
At Magnus Labs, Batman tells Cyborg to upload a virus to the Amazo army through the destroyed Amazo they have in order to stop them. As Batman and Cyborg work on that Superman goes to help Flash (Wallace West) distribute the Anti-Life Equation Virus cure by using their respective super speed.
Over in Paris, both Zatanna and Phantom Stranger have been overwhelmed by Trigon’s power. Constantine shows up and gives Zatanna the Spear of Destiny to use when the time is right.
Constantine then uses all of his magic power to fight Trigon. Constantine is able to get the early advantage until Trigon focus all his power into his fist and nails Constantine with a deadly punch.
As Zatanna goes to check on Constantine as he is dying it is shown around the world that the heroes are getting overwhelmed by the vast number of Amazos they are fighting. At the same time Flash is finding it difficult to distribute the cure in all of the chaos.
After some time Cyborg is able to upload a virus through the Amazo head that Batman gave him. The virus infects all of the Amazos around the world and they all shutdown.
In Paris, Superman confront Trigon and is able to fight the demon for a while. During that time Constantine passes away, in the process activates Boston Brand’s powers he absorbed to become the new Deadman with all the magic powers he previously obtained. Constantine reveals that dying and becoming Deadman was his plan the entire time. He then uses his new powers to go inside of Trigon.
After a brief struggle Constantine is able to gain control of Trigon. Constantine then asks Zatanna to give him the Spear of Destiny. As Trigon, Constantine takes the Spear of Destiny and stabs the demon with it.
As Trigon dies Constantine says his final goodbye to Zatanna.
Around the world Flash exhausts his energy distributing the cure. Mary Marvel and Batgirl-Shazam show up to provide him a break while they speed around distributing the last of the cure.
As the cure is finished being distributed Mera is shown reuniting with Tempest, Wonder Woman meets back up with the Amazons, and Superman finds Pa Kent alive after being given the cure.
Oliver Queen is the last to recover and when he does Dinah Lance is there to welcome him back. Dinah and Oliver kiss as the heroes return to the Gotham Forest. End of issue.
The Good: Whereas the previous six chapters of this mini-series were all about set-up DCeased: Dead Planet #7 gave us the conclusion that we have come to expect. This wasn’t a perfect ending but given all that we have seen our favorite heroes go through we got very close to it. In the process Tom Taylor and Trevor Hairsine delivered plenty of strong character moments that they have made the standard with the DCeased franchise.
Even as we were in a race against time with both the Amazo army and Trigon causing havoc across Earth, Taylor never forgot that he needed to make the ending in DCeased: Dead Planet about the survivors. We have been following all the remaining members of the new Justice League and heroes and villains living in Gotham Forest from the very beginning of DCeased. Over this entire time we have seen them all grow in ways that showed how when faced with an end of the world crisis who will stand up to defend what is left of Earth.
That feeling of unity is felt from the very opening sequence as we see Cassandra Cain as Shazam leading the other heroes against the Amazo army. There was no need for long dialogue sequences. All of these heroes knew exactly what they needed to do as they defended both survivors and the Anti-Living so that the cure could be administered. As the fighting went on you could feel how big of a struggle this was as the Amazo army had the overwhelming number advantage on their side.
This battle with the Amazo army gave greater importance to Batman and Superman’s mission in Australia to find Professor Ivo. The way they quickly worked together to take out the Amazo who attacked them showed a sense of urgency that could be felt throughout this issue. There was no messing around in this critical period.
Which made the way Superman reacted to Constantine absorbing all the souls of the corrupted individuals at the Australian stronghold stand out more. This could’ve easily been a moment when Superman would’ve justifiably called Constantine out on killing many people. But that is not what happened. Instead Taylor was able to show how in this universe Jonathan Kent has grown as Superman to understand the big picture when Constantine explains his plan. It’s a small moment that pays off well in how we later see Constantine compliment Jonathan as overcoming the possible future he saw when Superman fought and died against Trigon.
Taylor also shows this maturity with how quickly Damian Wayne as Batman convinces Cyborg to go with his virus plan to stop the Amazo army. Damian immediately recognize that Cyborg would have an aversion to using a virus after his experience living with the Anti-Life Equation Virus inside him for so long. Damian used that to pick the right words to get Cyborg behind his plan without getting into a long argument about it. Its moments like this that show how Taylor and Hairsine were building to an incredible payoff in previous chapters of this story.
The same goes for how Constantine was able to plan out the best way to take on Trigon. Taylor does a fantastic job treating Trigon as a final boss-level threat that the heroes needed to pull out all the stops in order to defeat. That is what we see with Constantine’s sacrifice plan as he used every magic attack to position himself in the spot where he can become the new Deadman. It was a powerful payoff to a character that was a jerk to the very end and you wouldn’t want it any other way.
Seeing our heroes overcome all of these threats made the final cure for the Anti-Life Equation Virus being successfully administered to the surviving Anti-Living extremely rewarding. We got enough time in an epilogue ending to feel happy that Mera, Cassie Sandsmark, and Superman were able to reunite with their loved ones. It nicely built to the final page with the Dinah Lance reuniting with the cured Oliver Queen. There was a great sense of relief in seeing this iconic couple reunite after all they were put through in DCeased: Dead Planet.
Another character in DCeased: Dead Planet that deserves a shoutout is how Wallace West finally got the proper spotlight to fully shine as the Flash. Seeing how Wallace speed across Earth distributing the cure was great to see. It made the moment when he had to slow down as he realized that the Amazo’s may be to overwhelming standout even more. This showed how impactful this event was on everyone but like all the other heroes Wallace stepped up as Flash to continue to cure as many people as he could. Ending with both Mary Marvel and Cassandra Cain providing him a break was a good way to show how the resolution in DCeased: Dead Planet was a complete team effort.
Trevor Hairsine maintained the high-level artwork that has come to be expected from his work on DCeased. Hairsine’s art is such a great fit to the character focused storytelling in DCeased: Dead Planet #7. The action in this final issue was for sure big but it was the moments where we punch in on individual character expressions that the art shines. You get how big each moment in this issue is as there is the race against time to cure all the people who have become Anti-Living.
The Bad: With how much has gone on in DCeased: Dead Planet there was bound to be something that wasn’t fully tackled. That is what happened with the lack of resolution around the appearance of the Anti-Living Darkseid that appeared at the end of DCeased: Dead Planet #4. Even though that was a monumental way to end an comic book we never revisited this development after it happened. Maybe if we get a sequel series stopping the Anti-Living Darkseid will be a major focus. But since we don’t know that will happen it was a noticeable miss that we didn’t circle back to this major development at some point in these last few issues of DCeased: Dead Planet.
It was also odd how quickly Zatanna was sideline to just be the one holding the Spear of Destiny until Constantine need to use it. Zatanna was built up to be someone who would have a big moment in this series. But in the end she was just the holder of the Spear of Destiny until Constantine used it himself on Trigon. We don’t even get to see her reaction to Constantine sacrifice. All we get in her final moments in this series were panels where we are looking at the back of her head.
Overall: Tom Taylor and Trevor Hairsine worked together to provide us with all the emotionally heavy ending that will satisfy fans of the DCeased franchise. There were plenty of great character moments that made the way things concluded in DCeased: Dead Planet #7 to come across as extremely rewarding. Fans of DC Comics should make sure to pick up DCeased: Dead Planet when its collection is released.
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