Dead Body Road

Dead Body Road (collected editions) #1

by Justin Jordan, Matteo Scalera (Illustrator), Moreno Dinisio (Colorist)

The men involved in his wife's death must now die. All of them. This volume collects the entire DEAD BODY ROAD miniseries, a bruising story of one man's revenge and the dark road he travels.

Collects DEAD BODY ROAD #1-6.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Crime, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Action, Fiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published June 25, 2014

About the author

Justin Jordan is an American comic book writer. He is known for writing and co-creating The Strange Talent of Luther Strode, Spread, Dead Body Road, Deep State, Dark Gods and Savage Things. He has also written Green Lantern: New Guardians, Superboy, Deathstroke and Team 7 for DC Comics and the relaunch of Shadowman for Valiant Entertainment.

In 2012, he was nominated for the Harvey Award for Most Promising New Talent.

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 1 out of 5]

The synopsis on the back of Dead Body Road is simply: “The men involved in his wife’s death must now die. All of them.” and yet I think even that seems to be over-explaining things. It should read instead “Guns go bang bang car hits people die die die fuck!”. That’s the level of superficiality we’re dealing with in Dead Body Road.

This is the type of action story that even Nic Cage, who accepts every job offer thanks to his massive tax bill, would baulk at. From the first page, it’s non-stop action without any preamble. Some people rob a bank, some people die. Then one guy decides to kill a bunch of other guys. A woman decides to kill some people too, as do some bikers. They spend the entire book shooting guns at each other until enough of them die.

This whole book passed me by in a blur of emotionless nothing. Here’s a shootout. Here’s a car chase. Here’s a bar fight. Here’s another shootout. And another. The book’s done. Oh. Was… was I in a coma?

I couldn’t name a single character, or describe what the point of it all was. Someone was chasing money, someone was looking for a data something, some dude was out for revenge - it all smooshes together into a pile of crappy cliches anyway.

I can’t emphasise enough how little effort is put into the “story” or “characters” in this book. It’s like a Fast and Furious movie without the cerebral parts - and there are no cerebral parts to the Fast and Furious movies! I’m simply staggered that Justin Jordan - who wrote the excellent Luther Strode books - wrote something this shallow AND it got published. It’s the most mundane action “story” you’ll ever read.

I’m not a fan of Matteo Scalera’s art - it looks the same in every comic. His characters are interchangeable with one figure looking like another in Black Science or Indestructible Hulk or Dead Body Road. The designs are much too similar, particularly the faces, for me to get around. I will say though that he does action very well so he’s definitely a good fit for this type of story.

If all you want to see - because this is all there is in this book - are car chases and gunfights without wanting to learn about why any of that is happening, who it’s happening to, or why you should care, get Dead Body Road.

It’s one long forgettable and unexciting mindless action sequence - so it’s bound to be made into a lame Hollywood movie any day now!

[Lono · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast paced barrage of bullet-ridden car chases and bloody carnage. Justin Jordan serves up my cup of tea with this vengeful tale. Wonderful in its simplicity, Jordan pays tribute to noir works of Stark, Leonard, and Thompson with this remorseless delight. Jordan’s hardboiled dialogue is perfectly suited for this type of revenge story. Love his small cast of characters and the ways in which he eventually massacres most of them.



And Matteo Scalera’s artwork is in one word, kinetic. His car chases have real motion, a task not easy to accomplish with comic book illustrations. Whether it’s with a shotgun, fireman’s axe, or a pipe-bomb, he really nails the violence necessary to tell Jordan’s callous story of personal retribution. I will certainly be looking into some of his other projects after reading this.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A average revenge story with pretty good art and some fun moments. Basically a guy's wife dies, a woman's boyfriend dies, together they team up to take out the people who killed them. A few predictable twist and turns with some fun shoot outs but nothing great. Just a decent revenge comic if that's what you want you'll get it here.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of Matteo Scalero's best work to date. A solid revenge / crime story.

[Roman Zarichnyi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Я вже розповідав про такого сценариста, як Джастін Джордан, разом із його серією коміксів «Лютер Строуд», з великою динамікою оповіді й перебільшеною жорстокістю. І, якщо ви читали враження, то мені ця серія сподобалася. Хоча й із кожною аркою вже гедь було мало того, що дивувало. Хотів би я також сказати так само про першу арку «Дорога мертвих тіл», 2014 #1–6 від того ж самого автора. Та скажу наперед, що навіть класний малюнок Маттео Скалери не врятував ситуацію.

Сюжет і передумова всієї катавасії в коміксі — прості і зрозумілі. Певне пограбування банку йде не за планом і, як результат, усе стає шкереберть. Під час крадіжки вбивають поліцейську, і її смерть — це той рушій, який дав поштовх усім подальшим подіям. Далі ми маємо хорошу старомодну історію помсти, де головний герой Ґейдж збирається стерти з лиця Землі кожну людину, яка винна в смерті Анни. Тут немає ні супергероїв, ні надприродних сил, ні сюрреалізму чи, не дай Боже, глибоких роздумів. Тут також немає справжніх хороших людей, просто злочинці, які варяться в різного роду кримінальному лайні. А далі тільки біганина вперед.

Я, справді, надіявся до самого кінця, що щось зміниться. Але, на жаль, більше нічого в цьому коміксі не можна знайти. Якщо в «Лютері Строуді» за основу лежить міфологічний та частково містичний аспект, то тут маємо тільки жагу помсти й постійні бійки: бійки в забігайлівці, бійки на вулиці та колосальна велика кількість бійок на дорозі під час різних погонь на автомобілях. Таке враження, що я потрапив у кінострічку «Скажений Макс», тільки замість постапокаліптичного антуражу є сучасний американський. Уже на середині сюжетною арки вже втомився від постійної динаміки й бездумного руху вперед.

Ось, що направду зупиняло від того, щоби закрити комікс — малюнок Маттео Скалери, якому потрібно завдячувати за титанічну роботу, щоби зобразити ту шалену динаміку, яку бажав показати Джастін Джордан. Мені малюнок Скалери ще сподобався із серії «Чорна наука» Ріка Рімендера, яку я читав у великому форматі на папері. І добре, що тут він не підкачав і виконав все на високому рівні.

Якщо б я не мав купленого другого тому, то точно не читав би далі, а так беруся за наступну арку. Щодо цього коміксу, то не раджу за нього братися. Тільки якщо ви ризикові й любите художній стиль Маттео Скалери.

[Michael (Mai) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This will be a short review. There isn’t a whole lot to say about this title. It’s a classic revenge story with a lot of car chases and gunfights. There isn’t a whole lot of depth to the story. It’s just about a dude, who is a crappy person and his search to find his wife’s murderer. When she was alive he was a little less crappy.

I didn’t really care about any of the characters and I feel like I’ve heard the story a thousand times in movies hashed out different ways. No character is memorable.

Do I think you should not read this? Hell no. I think everyone should read it. I’ve heaped praise on Matteo Scalera before and the simple reason is: he draws fast. If he is the artist on a book, I even read fast. There is no way I would have read beyond issue one if Scalera wasn’t the artist. I want to turn the pages faster and feel urgency find out just what’s going to happen next. I mean, it’s pretty hard to pull off a car chase in a comic, but he did it and did it well.

Mediocre at best story plus fantastic art leads this book to get a 3 star rating in my book.

[Dávid Novotný · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good action ride from California like dessert. One man is seeking vengeance, many more are looking for stolen money. Nothing special, no unexpected twists, no new concepts, just things that works in general. Start is little bit messy, but after a while everything will fall to pieces. Characters are not deep, but on the other hand, you don't expect and need much from them. Quite quick page turner, with rough but nice art.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dead Body Road is barely an excuse for Matteo Scalera to craft some scratchy, below-average (for him) pictures of villains getting beat up, shot, and run over. Justin Jordan's plot, if you can call it one, consists of "mystery man avenges dead wife." I didn't care about any of the barely-introduced characters and could only partially follow the barebones narrative. Bad stuff.

[Václav · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled over this few months ago and it looked like some regular revenge action crime with some dark humour, kind of Guy Ritchie movies. And I was about right. This is not some high hopes high-value comics, but it did what it aimed at. The story is classics. A boy loves a girl, girl gets killed during some high crime, the boy picks up his weapon and goes for the bloody revenge. That's super simple. There is also common addon about joining forces with unlikely "friends". That's it. One hundred and thirty pages of a savage ride for revenge, but no redemption. And I like it. the art fits the theme, thus I accepted the rushy scratchy style of ink. Because it works. Everything what is needed to be said (I mean drawn) is there. I can understand the medium ratings on an absolute scale. But the relative scale, judging by theme and goal of this comics, is above average. This is good, swift and fun.

[Shaun Stanley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dead Body Road collects issues 1-6 of the series by Justin Jordan and art by Matteo Scalera.

After a bank robbery gone wrong, a man collects his revenge.

This a pickup from the recent Image Crime ComiXology sale. It is all very simple and has the same plot to a hundred straight to video movies. The story is meaningless and adds nothing new to the genre. The art and action are strong though. Scalera does a great job of showcasing all of the action in a gritty and kinetic style. Come for the art, not the story.

[RG · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great artwork but the story was a pretty simple revenge story.

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

2* story elevated by the art

[Unai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Justin Jordan nos propone una historia "sencilla" de venganza. En un atraco muere una policía y su novio ex-dirty cop con conciencia, decide que se va cagar la perra y va a matar a todo el mundo relacionado con la muerte de su novia, que era lo único que le gustaba de si mismo. Sencillo no, malos que matar, buenos que no son buenos, gente entre medias que son el gris personificado y ensalada de tiros y hostias.

Pues bien, lo sencillo se convierte en puramente espectacular gracias a Matteo Scalera, que se deja los cuernos en unas paginas dobles impresionantes para por ejemplo, durante todo el 4º numero mostrarnos una persecución entre coches, motos y furgoneta a tiro limpio, que hace que te den ganas de aplaudir, por echarle huevos a confiar en sus lapices para que todo ese movimiento frenético nos funcione.
En fin, un cómic apetecible para momentos de disfrute, que no va a pasar a la historia, ni pretende ser mas que lo que es, una historia de venganza bien contada, bien dibujada y a la que si le tuviera que poner un pero, sería no haberla terminado un par de paginas antes de donde termina... el epilogo me falla un poco.

[Tazio Bettin · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story is ridiculous. Monodimensional characters, crappy trite one-liners, you can skip reading it entirely and you have lost nothing. Which speaks highly of Matteo Scalera's narration: you never need words to understand what's happening. Not that anything interesting is happening, it's just a shooting after another. But still, great art, wasted on a ridiculous script. Waste of money if it weren't for Scalera's art.

[Jason Ragle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book. It's an unrepentant action story with beautiful artwork and great dialogue. Not at all for kids, but that's ok.

[Michael Rubino · Rating 4 out of 5]

The artwork and the flow of the action is what this book is all about. Not much story, but the action feels like if from a movie.

Quick read, really enjoyed this one.

[Kenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a dark revenge journey with all the twists and turns of character, plot and the final dark denouement. A nice noirish adrenaline pumped ride.

[RubiGiráldez RubiGiráldez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dead Body Road va totalmente de frente y con el indicador de velocidad triplicando el límite de velocidad permitida. Cierto, Justin Jordan perpetra una "revenge story" de manual valiéndose mucho del endiablado arte de Matteo Scalera con predisposición total para ofrecer la más cercana experiencia "cinematográfica" que puedan trasmitir los trazos en las viñetas. Desde un pretexto argumental que puede recordar a una variación de la situación que motiva el Reservoir Dogs de Tarantino y un protagonista en el molde seco, de trasfondo misterioso que define un cumplimiento casi suicida de vengarse por la pérdida del ser querido que le impide volver a empaparse del todo de su lado oscuro que también nos recuerda al John Wick de la ya legendaria saga protagonizada por Keanu Reeves. El autor menta no pocas influencias del noir y comic criminal. Es consciente de que es un eslabón más en una interminable cadena de esta clase de historias. No es que quiera revolucionar esta perspectiva del relato criminal, pero tampoco es una obra hueca y en piloto automático. Justin Jordan logra caracterizar bastante bien su historia e imprimir ese primitivo sentimiento que mueve a su protagonista a ir de frente contra una panda de viciosos criminales que parecen tener más que perder que él. Pero Gage no solo se topará con enemigos... aunque sus aliados son un caso particular como para poder confiarles totalmente su vida. Entre la pareja del criminal más arrepentido de la operación que sesgó la vida de la amada de Gage. Y un ex compañero de su pasado dentro de la ley, pero que actualmente le lleva la delantera en su degradación moral. Aceptando la oscuridad del mundo y empleándola a su favor. Por supuesto, es Rachel la pieza clave en todo este conjunto. Quien logra marcar un ancla para el protagonista, y con quien podemos tratar de vislumbrar algo de esperanza en una camino que parece llevar a un desenlace fatal.

Como apunto al inicio, el artista Matteo Scalera y el colorista Moreno Dinisio conducen Dead Body Road a un camino más memorable desde la seguridad argumental de Justin. La acción exuda por todos los poros del cómic. Y destacan esas increíbles persecuciones automovilísticas que hasta logran trasmitir más adrenalina que la saga cinematográfica de Fast and Furious.

Dead Body Road puede no cambiarte la vida y suponer solo una lectura de evasión sin más. La venganza, de hecho, es un acto que se termina descubriendo vacío y falto de sentimiento. Pero la ficción a partir de esta situación rara vez demuestra esa falta de sentimiento. La historia ideada por Justin Jordan y defendida por Scalera y Dinisio sin duda imprime una marcada huella de sudor y sangre en la carretera comiquera actual.

[Luis Diaz · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the worse comic books I've read. Just so cliché and idiotic derivative crap. The dialogue was composed by what seems like a 14 year old child. No characters seem remotely interesting. I picked it up because I thought maybe just maybe this would be interesting in some way, but no it was worse than I thought. This is the kind of book you look at and imagine the main characters being Wolverine and Sabretooth and realize the only reason people read those crappy superhero books is because of the nostalgic cool looking characters and action scenes in them. Nothing more. I'm glad I read it because this gives hope to any artist or writer out there who wises to make comic books one day because if you think you can do better than you just might be able to get your comic published by a company like Image. What I'm happy to see is that the books in general seem more interesting than this sad series these days. I hope the editors are doing their job and not letting something this crappy continue on in the assembly line without major editing. Maybe that is the most disappointing part.

[Tyler Thomas (Pages of Light) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun revenge story with lots of guns and killing. These stories always remind me that revenge is never something that can satisfy even when we get what we think we wanted out of the revenge. Acceptance, forgiveness, and justice is what satisfies but it isn't our job to exact that justice out ourselves. The blind pursuit of revenge will destroy us.

[Mee Too · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is more like 2.8 stars or a very low 3. On the upside i actually new this would not be anything special. I would say it was the average tough guy, loser, revenge story but the tough guy actually killed less people the "damsel in distress". They really should of highlighted her a little more and made her the main character.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imagine John Wick without an interesting lead. That's Dead Body Road. Matteo Scalera does his best with some great artwork that's extremely brutal but the story is very one note. A bank heist goes bad and a former cop seeks vengeance. There wasn't much more than that. It was a quick read and ultra violent. Overall, rounding up to average due to the great art.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

I should have started counting how many times they said fuck in this book, good lord....

I expected something better from the writer of Luther Strode and the artist for Black Science. This was a pretty standard revenge story with a few chase scenes and lot of swearing during gunfire. Pretty meh

[Zach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great pacing and two page spreads to show the fast paced action that you don't find in most graphic novels/comics. A little hard to track each character especially when they're characters we have only heard about but this doesn't last long at all so this is more of a 4.5 for me.

[Toonfactory · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story after a point in time gets repetitive, though there is enough meat in the story to have an extra issue there.
The art is brilliant and the dialogues juicy. Having said that there are places they overpower the narrative and makes the visuals a tad confusing.

[Ian Christy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fast, fun, superficial, violent crime yarn. Reads like storyboards for a grind house robbers on robbers, bikers and badasses desert highway brawler. Though laden with heaps of well framed and rendered moments, there’s little depth and less delight. Came away feeling drowsy.

[G-E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ce comics raconte une histoire clichée et peu originale. Sans rien réinventer, les illustrations brutes et la violence se marient bien pour un bon divertissement.

[Sean Goh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of action with not much plot. Good luck keeping track of the characters.

[Whitney (The Cover Collector) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was super messy but had enjoyable moments.

[Sheldon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable book if you go in reading it for the art and not the story. Simple revenge, action story with stunning art.