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Published by: Image Comics / Skybound
Released on: Apr. 23, 2014
Writer: Justin Jordan
Artist: Matteo Scalera
Cover: Matteo Scalera
Purchase at Amazon
After last issue's fantastic comic book car chase, Gage, Rachel and Cobb have holed up in an abandon warehouse, waiting for Lake and his biker gang to launch their next wave of the attack. This leaves time for Cobb to have a little chat with Rachel, as he questions her intentions with Gage on his road to revenge. After some tense discussion, the three turn their attention to the oncoming trouble just outside: Lake.
What happens next is one big fire fight, which fills the majority of the issue. Assault weapons, shotgun blasts to the face, decapitation by axe, motorcycles crashing, explosions…just a jammed-packed, action-filled stack of pages that never lets up. Rachel takes a big step down a road from where there is no return and Gage just may be in a big pickle, as this story is coming to the finale.
Justin Jordan's story flows like a movie script and has plenty of hero moments and one-liner opportunities, which isn't anything unique, but it's well executed. His characters, though all dirt bags for the most part, are likeable enough so that the reader does take an interest in what's to happen to them, especially Rachel. Matteo Scalera's work on this series has been nothing short of excellent. His multi-panel pages are instrumental in his ability to create an intense energy that really brings the action to such a high level. And the two-page multi-panel layouts are just plain fun to read through.
The book from the beginning has read like it's a treatment for a movie, complete with storyboards. If this was a movie, it would most probably be loud, obnoxious, mind-numbing, and star people no one will remember in 10 years. But as a comic book, Dead Body Road is exciting and wicked fun.
