DCeased: War Of The Undead Gods got off to a solid start as Tom Taylor and Trevor Hairsine began the final part of their DCeased Saga. We got the impact of an Anti-Living Darkseid right away as he laid waste to the New Genesis, turning the New Gods and Supergirl into Anti-Living in the process. Now with a planet of Gods now having become Anti-Living can the heroes of the DC Universe overcome these odds? Let’s find out with DCeased: War Of The Undead Gods #2.
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Trevor Hairsine
Inker: Andy Lanning
Colorist: Rain Beredo
SYNOPSIS
Mister Miracle and Big Barda return to New Genesis only to find it completely decimated with a large dark portal in the middle of the city. Black Racer stops Big Barda from going through the dark portal, which turns out to be a Mother Box portal that’s been infected by the Anti-Life Equation Virus that only Anti-Living can pass through.
The Anti-Living Darkseid and New Gods are then shown attacking the entire planet of Korugar, whose citizens are no match in fighting against.
Sinestro immediately heads to his home planet with the Yellow Lantern Corp using Warworld to get to Korugar after receiving the planet’s distress call.
Over on Earth-2 Brainiac hands over Kandor to Superman (Clark Kent) as a peace offering so the heroes accept his word about the threat of the Anti-Living Darkseid. While Guy Gardner is against listening to Brainiac, Superman and President Lois Lane accept the warning about Anti-Living Darkseid.
As soon as the Yellow Lantern Corps make it to Korugar they launch a massive attack in an attempt to wipe out the Anti-Living in one shot. They are stopped by the Green Lantern Corps led by Kyle Rayner and Soranik Natu, who also got Korugar’s distress call.
Before they can argue the best thing they should do Anti-Living Supergirl knocks out Kyle. Anti-Living Darkseid then kills several members of the Yellow and Green Lantern Corps. Sinestro and Soranik combine their power to fight back against Anti-Living Darkseid. Anti-Living Supergirl interferes in the fight, providing Anti-Living Darkseid an opening to kill Sinestro by ripping his head off his body.
Seeing that they have been completely overwhelmed a recovered Kyle convinces Soranik that they have to retreat.
Sinestro’s Yellow Lantern Power Ring selects Anti-Living Darkseid as its new wielder. Now powered by the Yellow Lantern Power Ring and Warworld under his control Anti-Living Darkseid is ready to end all of life in the universe. End of issue.
REVIEW
With how big of a victory the heroes had at the end of DCeased: Dead Planet it was key that the opening chapters of DCeased: War Of The Undead Gods set up how the Anti-Life Equation Crisis is not over. That is certainly what Tom Taylor and Trevor Hairsine have accomplished in these first two chapters. DCeased: War Of The Undead Gods #2 in particular hits home how unstoppable the Anti-Living Darkseid, Supergirl, and New Gods are.
Dedicating the majority of the second chapter to Anti-Living Darkseid’s side of the conflict was very much needed. Darkseid’s status has been the biggest dangling plotline. Emphasizing how the Anti-Life Equation Virus is just as big of a threat as in the first two series even with there being a cure available was key for this story. And you don’t get much bigger on the threat level than Darkseid and the New Gods as the main antagonist.
Taylor and Hairsine did the best thing possible to get how Anti-Living Darkseid and the New Gods over as Crisis-level threats by having them decimate the Green Lantern and Sinestro Corps. We already saw how powerful Anti-Living Darkseid was by having him turn the New Gods and Supergirl into Anti-Living. Taking things further by showing how just Anti-Living Darkseid and Supergirl were enough to completely overwhelm Green Lantern and Sinestro Corps made the threat level pop off the screen.
Through all of this Taylor and Hairsine deliver some emotionally impactful moments with the shocking death of Sinestro. Sinestro’s death was properly telegraphed by how quickly the relationship between Sinestro and Soranik is emphasized. Just through a quick argument, we see all the father-daughter tension that continues to exist between Sinestro and Soranik. It made their team-up against Anti-Living Darkseid even more meaningful as Sinestro and Soranik fought for their own survival. That all made Sinestro’s death has a greater impact as now it will be a major motivator for Soranik to, hopefully, be a major player in DCeased: War Of The Undead Gods.
The one aspect of DCeased: War Of The Undead Gods #2 that I was lukewarm about was the talk with Brainiac. While Superman and Lois Lane showed they understood the severity of Brainiac’s warning about Darkseid, Guy Gardner came across as completely annoying. More than anything Guy was delaying Earth’s heroes’ response to Anti-Living Darkseid. I really wish that rather than focusing on Guy that this time would’ve been instead given to the new Justice League after they talked with Superman and Lois about their next move. The entire middle part just felt like one big stalling tactic that was unnecessary with how great the stuff going on outside of Earth-2 was.
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FINAL THOUGHTS
DCeased: War Of The Undead Gods #2 puts over the Crisis-level threat that the Anti-Living Darkseid and New Gods are to the DC Universe. The emotional moments elevate the action we see take place throughout this issue. Now with the antagonist firmly established the stage is set for War Of The Undead Gods to be the biggest story of the DCeased DC Universe trilogy.
Story Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7.5 Night Girls out of 10