Believe it or not, there’s something strange going on with the mysterious box that is full of DVDs that no one in town has heard of.  Your Major Spoilers Review of Deadbox #1, awaits!

DEADBOX #1

Writer: Mark Russell
Artist: Ben Tiesma
Colorist: Vladimir Popov
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Publisher: Vault Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 8th, 2021

Previously in Deadbox: Welcome to the town of Lost Turkey, where the main source of entertainment is a cursed DVD machine that seems to know more about the fate of its citizens than they do.

TO THE STARS

Deadbox #1 opens up with a montage of scenes from Lost Turkey, before settling on a convenience store being manned by a young woman named Penny.  She’s joined by a pair of customers, a man and woman, who speak like they’re from a different time.  During their conversation, Penny reveals that she’s there to help her sick father and she should be back at college.  They also reveal the Deadbox, a vending machine full of movies that no one has ever heard of before.  After the couple leave, Penny rents one of the dvds.  The movie is a sci-fi movie that tells the story of what happens when an alien race and Earth make contact and try to organize a meeting between the two races. In between scenes from the movie, we see Penny taking care of her father as well as an interaction with the local gun shop owner. At the end of the issue it’s revealed that Penny’s father has rented a movie of his own.

AN AMALGAMATION

Deadbox #1 comes off as a comic book that’s been pieced together from at least three other comic book series’.  On one hand, there’s a cynical narration that feels like it comes from a satirical title, while the main premise feels like it comes from a horror book, and the plot of the DVD being something straight from Twilight Zone.  None of these facets are done poorly, in fact when they’re viewed independently from the rest of the comic, they’re pretty good. They just don’t jive with each other. Each one tries to be a commentary on its own, but they seem to be independent of each other.  The only time when it seems to come together is the final page of the issue and that is handled with very little subtlety.

NICE CLASSIC LOOK

The art of this issue has a nice classic horror book feel.  Faces are just distorted enough with their expressions to make things feel unsettling but not monstrous. The use of color gives the look an oppressive sun bleached look to a lot of it.  There’s a clever trick in the “movie storyline” where we see the aliens and the humans slowly start to look very similar which was a nice little touch that worked well with the subject matter.

THE BOTTOM LINE: DISJOINTED QUALITY

Deadbox #1 is not poorly written.  In fact, there’s three well done strings of writing here that’s all done well.  The problem comes when those strings need to be woven together to make something thematically coherent.  The different tones present in this book don’t mix well with each other and makes the book feel as if it’s interrupting itself on multiple occasions.  3.5 out of 5 stars.

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Deadbox #1

70%

70%

Not Quite There

Deadbox #1 has some good stuff going for it. Its sci-fi subplot is entertaining, its commentary on small town America is insightful, and it’s main plot is intriguing in its own right. They just don’t come together well.

• Writing

  5
• Art

  8
• Coloring

  8
• User Ratings (0 Votes)
  0