Pulp #626
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Pulp #626

Well hi there, gang! It’s that time of the week again where I sit down and babble about comics. Now that I’m done with uni for the year, you’d think that I’d have plenty of time to kick back and read all day, but sadly that’s not the case – as the saying goes, there’s no rest for the wicked! This time around, I’ve picked up a trade that was recommended to me by a friend from uni from BOOM! Studios – Deathmatch, written by Paul Jenkins (Hellblazer, Origin) and drawn by Carlos Magno (Planet of the Apes). Deathmatch is one of those comics that you can just tell is written by a comic fan. The story is very reminiscent of a conversation I’ve had with my friends many a time: if you pitted every hero – from both Marvel and DC – against one another, who would come out on top? Deathmatch sets out to settle that argument once and for all – albeit through analogues of your favourite superheroes.
Deathmatch lives up to its name, in a big way. A mysterious – and supremely powerful – supervillain has simultaneously imprisoned the world’s greatest superheroes, and is compelling them to fight each other to the death. Friends are fighting friends, relationships are being shattered and heroes are breaking their vows and killing their foes. It’s kill or be killed, and the bloodshed will continue until only one remains. There’s one twist, though; none of the heroes can remember how they came to be in the arena, or what compels them to kill until they’re in the arena – and they forget again, as soon as they leave. As the heroes struggle to make sense of their situation, the superheroes Dragonfly, Sable and the Rat can’t help but shake the feeling that there’s something even more sinister beneath the deadly games of the arena.
While the actual fights themselves take centre stage – after all, that’s the primary appeal of a book called Deathmatch – I found myself really getting into the mystery surrounding the heroes’ imprisonment, and honestly found it more interesting than the titular matches. Jenkins’ take on popular heroes is fascinating, too; Deathmatch features parallels of heroes like Spider-man, Batman and even Rorschach working together to try to escape their predicament. Magno’s art is the perfect fit for the story, too. While the characters are ostensibly stand-alone, they’re still reminiscent of their inspirations in both character and their physical design. For example, The Rat – Rorschach’s parallel – bears a number of similarities to his inspiration (e.g. trenchcoat, hat and mask) but Jenkins has made enough tweaks to the character to make Rat a unique, interesting character in his own right. There’s plenty of emotional drama thrown in, too, as you would expect from a story that has friends pitted against one another. While I must confess I was a little sceptical of Deathmatch’s potential at first, I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly I was drawn into the story, and found that I was becoming particularly attached to certain characters. While your initial instinct may be to automatically compare Deathmatch’s characters to their DC and Marvel equivalents, there’s enough originality in there to really grab your attention.
Deathmatch strikes me as the kind of story that’s best read in bulk, so if you’re of a mind to pick this one up, I’d suggest grabbing the following trades soon after – you’re going love it.
Written by Alastair McGibbon