Revenge thrillers as a genre kind of died out for a while after their heyday in the 70s. Sure, films since then have certainly featured revenge storylines, but never really on the level of something like Death Wish. With “Dead Body Road”, Justin Jordan and Matteo Scalera have been trying their damndest to capture that genre in comic form.
Written by Justin Jordan
Illustrated by Matteo Scalera
Gage has taken one of his wife’s murderers captive in the back of his van. In pursuit is a fleet of bikers and other murderous bastards. Are you ready for an interrogation at 100 MPH?!
This has been discussed at length by many more talented people before me, especially when “Hawkeye” tried to do it, but car chases simply shouldn’t work in comics. Comics are still images lined up in a sequence to give the illusion of motion, right? Anyone could tell you that. So that makes a car chase in comics like watching a car chase in freeze frame, right? Well, no. Not if you have someone like Matteo Scalera drawing the car chase. That’s when you get something really special.
After teaming with Tradd Moore for two series, it should be no surprise that Justin Jordan was able to write to Mattero Scalera’s talents. Now, Moore and Scalera couldn’t be more different in terms of style, one thing they do have in common is a focus on fast-paced, high-octane artwork. This quality of Scalera’s art was crucial in making this issue work because it is entirely comprised of one, long car chase. If Scalera had dropped the ball in any way then this issue would have collapsed in on itself like a flan in a cupboard. Thankfully, Scalera nails it. With frequent use of double pages spreads to lay out the sequence across the two pages, it gives him room to not only show the multiple angles that the chase works from, but to control the pace with a greater fidelity than if each sequence was crammed into one page.
Anyone who has seen Matteo Scalera’s work should be able to tell that his inking style would be incredibly conducive to making this issue work and they would be right. Never have I seen anyone create a sense of speed and motion in a still image through the simple use of speed lines in the inking quite like Matteo Scalera. It is truly something to behold and Scalera feels completely in his element here.
The artwork of Scalera also manages to completely capture the brutality of Jordan’s writing. If you are at all remotely familiar with “Luther Strode”, it should be no surprise to you that Jordan’s writing gets pretty darn violent here. And Scalera captures that violence in the panel with gleeful abandon. There is a moment during the chase (which I will refrain from detailing because it would ruin the effectiveness of the scene, but you’ll know it if you see) that is so shockingly violent that it wouldn’t look out of place in a Tarantino film. Scalera and Jordan in combination both completely nail the gritty revenge thriller feel for this issue both in terms of the high octane car chase and the brutal violence that punctuates it.
If you’re wondering why I’ve focused on the artwork more than the writing thus far, it’s not to show up other, possibly lesser comic review sites by actually talking about art, it’s more because there’s not a lot else to talk about. That isn’t a slight against Justin Jordan’s writing of this issue because it’s as good as it has been throughout the series so far. It’s more like reviewing a movie by scenes and focusing on the car chase. You’re going to focus on the directing, cinematography and stunt work rather than the writing, right? The simple fact is that the issue didn’t really forward the plot as much as previous issues and other than inclusion of a mid-car chase interrogation scene, the writing is a little on the light side. What makes this issue work is the artwork, but that doesn’t mean the writing is bad.
This issue was a very interesting entry for the series and while it didn’t necessarily focus on furthering the story, which is still a little on the flimsy side, it more than made up for it as a showcase of Matteo Scalera’s art. As an issue dedicated to an extended car chase, it defied expectations by not only working, but also being exciting and fun to read. Whether or not Jordan and Scalera can pull it all together at the end to make the story more than it is now is a discussion for another time, but right now what matters is that, damn, that Scalera sure can draw one hell of a car chase.
