By Andrew Cosby (Story), Michael Alan Nelson (Script), Francesco Biagini (Art), and Matthew Wilson (Colors)
The Story: In a post-apocalyptic future, Nick Masters is a courier that risks life and limb to travel from town to town, delivering packages (whatever they may be). With his kidnapped sister’s life on the line, Nick has 72 hours to get a package through the “Dead Run” to San Francisco for a powerful drug lord. But before leaving, Nick makes a visit to Waylon Biggs, the only man to ever travel the “Dead Run” and live to tell about it…
What’s Good and What’s Not So Good: If your thinking that the story sounds like a cross between Transporter and Mad Max…You’ve got the right idea. Though unoriginal, the concept of Dead Run is decent enough to base a comic around (fortress cities for the win). The problem however, is that the latest Boom! release doesn’t have a whole lot going for it beyond concept.
While the story by Andrew Cosby is solid enough, the script by Michael Alan Nelson is incredibly weak. There isn’t a single memorable character that Dead Run #1 introduces. Everyone comes across as generic and cliché. You’ve got the rough, cocky, serious hero that needs to do what’s right. You’ve got the older, wiser cautionary veteran. Hell, you even got the spunky female sidekick looking for a bit of adventure… It makes the whole comic feel rather boring because the characters have been seen many times before.
The artwork by Francesco Biagini and Matthew Wilson, thankfully, is much stronger than either the script or the story. While Biagini’s style is rather simplistic, everything looks quite cinematic and keeps Dead Run #1 from being a total waste of time. In addition, Wilson’s stylish color work is surprisingly distinct and compliments Biagini’s art rather well.
Conclusion: Dead Run #1 looks nice, and that’s really the best thing I can say about it. Now that I think about it, my opinion is that the issue should have been used as a template for the opening moments of a Mad Max re-imagining starring Jason Statham rather than released as the debut of a new comic series…
Grade: D+
-Kyle Posluszny