The DCeased rollercoaster continues! Where the original DCeased story was cosmic in scope, Unkillables is much more grounded and street-level, featuring a great cast of characters. I really enjoyed the first issue of this 3-part miniseries, so I was looking forward to reading the second chapter. Does it match the first issue in terms of quality, though? Let’s have a look. SPOILERS.

There are only three issues in this series, and Taylor and Mostert have a lot of ground to cover. They move through the story fast, and while this might be just a bit too fast for some, I quite enjoy the pacing. This is a survival story first and foremost, so it feels right to me that the focus goes to that over lengthy character moments or drama. That doesn’t mean, however, that the creative team completely leaves that kind of stuff out. There is an entire section dedicated to showing how some of the villains and heroes set aside their differences and start working together, bonding with the children that are with them in the process. Taylor and Mostert give us just enough to see how this happens, which adds the touch of character drama that this story needs in the end. After all, any survival story benefits from having members of the cast care about each other—that raises the stakes significantly.

Yet, as fun as the action scenes and the character moments are, this comic has questionable elements as well. It’s these questionable elements that drag down the overall quality, and it’s a shame, because these are things that could’ve been resolved quite easily had the plot structure been reexamined before the book's creation. This has mainly to do with characters behaving out-of-character for the sake of plot advancement. I’ll give a few examples.

I’m not buying the way that Vandal Savage dies, because the way this is framed makes it look like he never considered the possibility that a zombie version of a powerhouse hero could track him down. Savage is known for being the guy that has been alive for thousands of years and he’s one of the greatest schemers and masterminds in the DCU. He shouldn’t act surprised to see this particular zombie hero; he should be smart enough to consider the possibility that this hero got turned. Moreover, he is only surprised for the sake of a joke, and he only dies because the other villains need a reason to escape the island. On top of that, he dies brutally, which feels like shock value for the sake of shock value to me. This isn’t my biggest complaint about this issue, but I do think that Vandal Savage’s role in this story could’ve been handled a lot better.

When the villains escape through the mirrors to Blüdhaven, where Gordon and the others are hiding, Captain Cold stays behind in the villains’ lair to hold off the zombie hero. Mirror Master returns for him, but neither makes it out alive. In Blüdhaven, Deathstroke even acknowledges that Cold and Mirror Master aren't coming anymore, and everyone just walks off, accepting that these two have died. Later on in the comic there’s a great passage where a zombie Mirror Master starts attacking the survivors through the mirrors, but the idea is better than the execution. I don’t buy that not a single one of these master tacticians—Deathstroke, Bane, Shiva—come up with the plan to destroy all the mirrors preemptively. In fact, any of the characters that know what Mirror Master’s powers are should be able to come up with this contingency plan, master tactician or not. It’s really not rocket science.

Then there is the case of Bane, who is criminally underused. He mostly just speaks in one-liners, and his most interesting scene—the one where he teaches history to the kids—just ends in a silly joke that, unfortunately, doesn’t quite resonate with me. However, there’s a scene where Bane’s walking through the hallways at night and he finds Ace, who’s growling because he obviously senses a threat. I don’t get why Bane—as a master tactician—doesn’t at least check his flanks instead of just hunkering down before Ace, asking the dog what’s the matter over and over again. If Ace starts growling, Bane should be ready for action, immediately. Instead, he acts like a naive character in a slasher movie that gets killed easily. What makes this even more frustrating is that Bane gets reduced to a plot device to set up this issue’s (pretty cool) cliffhanger and, by extension, the third and final issue of this series.

Characters are not plot devices. Characters should not act out-of-character just to set up a scene or a punchline. And considering that this issue leans heavily on these things, the overall quality drops, and I don’t enjoy the comic as much as #1. It’s a shame, because it just ends up being one big missed opportunity.

The artwork is solid, though. Mostert continues to deliver good sequential art where the panels flow into each other nicely. Body language and facial expressions match the script, although I still wish that the faces didn’t look so much alike—even though the faces have different features, it’s the art style that makes them all look similar. Mostert’s overall aesthetic also matches the tone of Taylor’s script well; despite the violence and the gore being extreme, there’s a lightheartedness to some of the panels that, much like Taylor's quirky humor, balances out the horror elements.

Recommended if…

• You’ve been collecting all the DCeased comics.
• You love zombie stories.
• You hate Vandal Savage and/or Bane.
• You can look past the out-of-character stuff as long as the action is great.

Overall: This could’ve been a great comic, but with some of these master tacticians acting rather untactful, and others just being reduced to jokes or plot devices, this comic starts to crumble a little bit. The cliffhanger is good, though, because it’s hard to predict how the survivors are going to get out alive, and I’m eager to find out. The action is also wonderfully over the top, and the character moments—though brief—add the character dynamics that a survival horror story requires. It's an entertaining comic, but it definitely isn't as good as the previous issue.

Score: 7/10

Disclaimer: DC Comics provided Batman News with an advance copy of this comic for the purpose of this review.