Charles Soule and Alberto Ponticelli do their best “Walking Dead” impression in the DCU, and the result is a lot better than you might expect.
Written by Charles Soule
Illustrated by Alberto PonticelliIn a world with no heroes, death lies behind every turn! Black Hand arrives to take advantage of Forever Evil, and he may be the most dangerous player yet! And when last we saw him, Black Hand was a pile of dust in the Dead Zone! How did he manage to return?
I really didn’t expect Black Hand to be making a return so soon after is (most recent) demise in Geoff Johns’ “Green Lantern” finale. Zombies are obviously huge right now, so it makes sense that DC would want to keep this particular character front and center. However, Soule and Ponticelli do a great job of making him feel worthwhile rather than gratuitous.
Soule makes the wise choice of not going back to the “Blackest Night”/Nekron well for this one. Not that those are bad stories or concepts, it’s just that they have been more than adequately covered. Some will be disappointed in the lack of set up or explanation for Hand’s return. Soule offers little reasoning for the dark resurrection other than, because comics. It turns out to be another wise choice, as by forgoing the prerequisite exposition and recapping, Soule dives right into the meat of the story.
In an interesting development, Black Hand is just as lost as the reader, stumbling through familiar haunts, slowly regaining memories of his past life. Through this, we get to see the character use his powers in some fascinating ways, as well as adapt to the drastically different “Forever Evil” landscape.
It’s hard to do zombies in comics these days without immediately drawing comparisons to the phenom that is “The Walking Dead.” Soule even pokes fun at the current ubiquitous status of zombies with some great reactions from the Coast City Police Department. Of all the uses of the “Forever Evil” status quo, turning it into a Dawn of the Dead type horror story is surprisingly one of the most unique.
Alberto Ponticelli was born to draw the weird and the macabre, as witnessed in his recent work on “Frankenstein” and “Dial H.” Ponticelli frames this more as a horror comic than a superhero one, a decision that ultimately helps set the issue apart from some of its Villain Month brethren. The artist takes several visual cues from Doug Mahnke, the artist who arguably brought Hand to life, if you will. Ponticelli’s pages look the best when he’s allows his work to completely take over the page, as when Hand walks out onto the burning streets of Coast City, or when a group of zombies storms a group of huddled police officers. Ponticelli perfectly conveys the sense of death and decay that permeates the issue. Colorist Danny Vozzo’s work is equally essential in establishing the issue’s dark mood, and deserves equal praise.
If you’ve been keeping up with our “Villains Month Weekly Round-Ups,” many of this month’s DC books fall back on exposition heavy origins to pad out their contents. These issues are almost invariably the least interesting. “Black Hand” is one of the minority that breaks this trend, moving the featured character forward rather than focusing on the past. Another flaw I’ve noticed with the Villains books is that they rarely advise the reader where to follow this character next. “Black Hand” is one of these offenders, but only technically. It’s obvious that Hand will be back to plague the Lanterns, Hal Jordan in particular, sometime after next month’s climactic ‘Lights Out’ crossover. If this one shot is any indication, whether it’s in the main book, or in Soule’s own “Red Lanterns,” its going to be worth checking out.
Final Verdict: 8.5 – Buy. Doing Villains Month right.
