Dead Body Road #1 (of 6)

Published by: Image Comics/Skybound
Released on: Dec. 11, 2013
Writer: Justin Jordan
Artist: Matteo Scalera
Cover: Matteo Scalera
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A botched heist ends in the death of a security guard, a woman named Anna, and that goes over like a turd in the punch bowl with her husband Gage. Vengeance is the only thing on his mind now and he's going to kill his way to the top of the heap until he's satisfied or until he's dead. His police buddy Yablonski gives him the only lead the cops have, plus the weekend to get a head start on the police.

Gage begins his quest for blood with an ex-hacker named Jimmy, who's already been found by a couple of thugs who worked him over first. Through Jimmy, Gage learned that Lake, one of the guys responsible for Jimmy's critical condition, ran a crew of seven on the heist. And although Jimmy doesn't know who killed her, he knows the people involved. Before he dies, he will tell Gage what he knows, but only if Gage does something for Jimmy.

Meanwhile, another involved in Lake's operation has things worse than Jimmy, at the hands of a very capable torturer named Fletcher Cobb. Through his expertise, creativity, and through the smashed teeth of his subject, Cobb finds out the bank heist was a cover up for something much bigger. So it would appear that Cobb does not work with or for Lake, which leads to the question: “who does Cobb work for?”

Fueled with ultra-violence and lots of “F” words, Dead Body Road doesn't appear to be more than a revenge tale, at least at this point. Of course being the first issue there's the set up to get through before the story gets going. Justin Jordan's dialogue flows nicely and he pretty much jumps right into things, pushing aside any substantial character development in the first issue and instead going for the hook to bring the reader back for the next installment. Matteo Scalera draws action well. At one point in the story he pencils a car chase and brings energy to the pages that give it a cinematic feel. His art and Moreno DiNisio's colors complement Jordan's writing style quite nicely and together the three deliver a book that is both visually and verbally interesting. They hooked this reader in, and the next issue can't come fast enough.