Die!Namite Lives! #002

Die!Namite Lives! #002

Dynamite Entertainment 2021

Written by Fred Van Lente

Illustrated by Vincenzo Carratù

Coloured by Kike J. Diaz

Lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

The hit series returns, cuz you can't kill a never-ending army of zombies…you can only hope to beat the ---- out of them! After tragically losing their first Chosen One against the zombie plague, Vampirella, Miss Fury, and what remains of the Project Superpowers look for a new savior -- but Ash Williams is an even more reluctant Deadite hunter than usual! This time, the Army of Darkness has ray guns, super powers and a brilliant new general: Evil Sonja, who takes her role of Queen of Hel quite seriously!

Oh I am so digging this story thus far. The opening where we see the Project Superpowers team all zombified and taking out the Red Army is one of the things that I want to see more of. I’m a bit of a freak in that regard I suppose but honestly the idea behind it fascinates me and the strategic strike of taking on such a huge army to swell your own ranks is as smart as it gets. The fact that those doing the narration have no clue who’s who in this madness only fuels the desire in me to know more, because I know who the characters are heh but if they are unknown on this world then yeah knowing more would be fun to see.

I am very much enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction and of course how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter really do some wonders in fleshing the character out further. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story keeps us on our toes for sure.

I really like how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve and strengthen. These layers contain some amazing bits of storytelling and its where we see depth, dimension and complexity added to the story as these avenues are explored. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved extremely well.

I am definitely enjoying how we see the interiors here. The linework is sensational and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level & quality of detail work is exceedingly well rendered. Backgrounds are utilised pretty well here as they enhance the moments and then work within the composition of the panels to bring us depth perception, a sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is marvellous. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show an exceptional eye for storytelling. The colour work is really well rendered. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is gorgeous. The creativity and imagination we see is fantastic and I loved Smiley’s pages and how he kind of steals the show during those moments.

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This is a fabulous book and while zombies have been over done I think this shines just enough of a different light on it that sets it apart from your standard fare. The ending for this issue is sensational and it combines the traditional cliffhanger with something else and I’m not sure i’d exactly say hope but it’s pretty close. Fred really takes this to a whole new level of awesome creepiness thanks his writing, characterisation and some spectacularly great interiors make this one of the genres brightest offerings.