Reviews
REVIEW: Dead End #1
Book Title: Dead End #1
Book Description: Jack is an American soldier fighting in the Vietnam War when he is captured by the Viet Cong army. While he is their prisoner, aliens perform experiments on him. The results leave Jack unable to die. Eleven years later, Jack is freed and returns to the United States. His parents are dead. His wife moved on. The life Jack had is gone. After trying to intervene on a mugging goes horribly wrong Jack devotes himself to a life of fighting crime as Dead End.
Book Author: Javan Jordan
Book Format: Paperback
Publisher - Orgnization: Uranium Age Comics
Publisher Logo: 
Illustrator: Steve Cardoselli
- Story(3.25)
- Interior Art(2.5)
- Cover Art(4.25)
- Dialogue(3)
- Mechanics(3.5)
- Editing(3)
Summary
I’ve always held a special place in my heart for well done homage covers. Especially if it’s the cover of an issue that I love. Enter: Javan Jordan’s homage cover of The Watchmen #1.
A cover is supposed to announce its presence with authority and hook prospective customers. This variant cover of Dead End #1 did that in spades. When I saw it money was no object. I wanted this book to go on my wall.
At different points the story reminds me of Spawn and The Watchmen . The biggest differences from Spawn being that this book is grittier and unlike Al Simmons, Jack remembers everything about his previous life.
Like the characters in The Watchmen, Jack also seems to travel a bit. I loved when he paid a visit to the Ku Klux Klan. His comments about robes being fire retardant reminded me of Rorschach.
The dialogue’s primary function is to move us through the action sequences. We do get some snippets of information from it. The meat and potatoes comes from the narrative, which tells a good story. I’m hoping to see more character development for Jack/Dead End in the next installment.
With a well done cover and a good story one would expect the interior artwork to follow suit. It does mesh quite nicely with the story, especially in the action panels. It will need crisper lines and more detail to start drawing comparisons with the works of Todd McFarlane or Dave Gibbons.
All said I found Dead End #1 to be an entertaining read. With this book Javan Jordan has thrown down the gauntlet. I’m eager to see if he can match this work with the vigor it deserves in the sequel.
User Review
( votes)
