Death Sentence Vol. 2: London

Death Sentence #2

by Monty Nero, Martin Simmonds (Artist)

The G-Plus virus, which grants people superpowers but six months to live, is spreading through the world's populace faster than ever... 

Can a cure for G-Plus be found before their time runs out?!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes

192 pages, Paperback

First published April 12, 2016

Reviews

[Scott]

3.5

[Aaron]

There are almost too many puzzle pieces, and too much aimless banter, to make sense of the converging plotlines that form DEATH SENTENCE: LONDON. The book purports to have one or two central figures but nevertheless spends considerable time integrating five, six, or more into the mix. This isn't the story of how one person with one sinister superhuman virus is changing the world; this is the story of how five or six people, with their fates inextricably linked to her death or survival, will set in motion numerous events that will no doubt change the course of history.

DEATH SENTENCE: LONDON is controlled chaos. The story eschews linearity in favor of squeezing into its pages as many rogue forces imaginable. There are governmental forces, grassroots forces, journalistic forces, criminal forces, and individual/independent forces, all questing for power. London is a battleground, and every single day, more and more lives are lost in pursuit of its control.

It's an okay read. However, the title's most prominent strengths are its largest detriments: too many characters, irreverent humor, whiplash pacing, and so on. Verity Fette, everyone's favorite promiscuous art junkie, pops back into the story. She's often touted as the book's lead, but she doesn't have very much face time. Further, it's not exactly clear what Verity is actually doing in the book or what she wants out of life ("normal" is a bit too cheesy), and so her struggle with placelessness is rather distracting.

The introduction of FBI agent Jeb Mulgrew, an undercover specialist, is the most interesting part of this volume. His home life is splintering as a result of his time away at work, and his life at work is always hanging by a thread, because no matter how egregious the task he must perform, his humanity is always knocking at the door. The man works for slime, and in turn, is paid to extinguish slime of a slightly more dangerous caliber. Jeb is a good person. But unfortunately for him, he may be the only one left.

DEATH SENTENCE: LONDON reads like the cluttered second act of an action film that isn't quite sure what to do with itself. Either the next volume will totally implode and soil itself, or it will weave all these impossibly depressed, drug-addled, needlessly promiscuous humans into a glittery tapestry, and set them all ablaze in a fit of glory.

[Alex Sarll]

Maybe the reason Montynero doesn't do more comics is that his precognitive powers mean he's too busy on the stock market. The first volume of Death Sentence was one of Mike Dowling's first gigs, and this sequel has the first professional work by Martin Simmonds. Who, yes, may not be the clearest storyteller at this point, but already had that remarkable knack for getting a mood on to the page, here that if London recovering from catastrophe and seething on the edge of more. But while the first volume was happy to call its Prime Minister David Cameron (and then bump him off), this one makes a faint attempt at deniability - the Mayor of London may be an old Etonian with messy blond hair, but he's called Tony Bronson, and definitely not anything else with similar vowels. And here's where the prescience really kicks in. 'Bronson' trying to lock down the city, declaring a curfew, even forbidding people to shag their partners, all while secretly flouting the rules himself - and this in a comic published in 2016!

Sadly, while the prognostication is amazing, the comic as a whole isn't up there with the first volume. That had a tight focus on three leads, and all the urgency of a great debut album, creators who know this may be their one chance to say their bit and put out something which proves that they existed, that they matter. This is the difficult follow-up, trying new stuff, not all of which comes off. Doherty analogue Weasel may still be prominent on the cover, but is pretty much a supporting character; Verity is now firmly at the heart of the story, but as well as the politicians, she has to share the spotlight with one plot about an undercover agent for...some American agency that operates at home and abroad? Also, two feuding superpowered dealers in Brixton, whose slang didn't feel wrong, exactly, just a little by-numbers, secondhand in a way the assorted white fuck-ups don't. There's still a great idea at the heart of it all, the people who see rioting as freedom from oppression versus those for whom it's just freedom to trash and take - but it never feels like it quite surfaces as well as the opening act's wrestling with the creative urge and the fear of death. All the same, I really must remember to read the much-delayed final act in less than another decade.

[Chad]

Not as focused storywise as the first volume where you had three leads get the Gplus virus and ultimately go after each other while making a mess of London. Those characters fade to the background some. Verity still has a decent size role, but now the Americans have come on the scene to try and steal a cure while various random subplots ensue. The introduction to the complete edition says this was all planned but it doesn't really like that was the case.

[Tim Gray]

A decent follow up to the first book, but does seem to lose a little momentum.

[Tony Calder]

This volume collects all 6 issues of the second series of Death Sentence. This continues from where the first series ended, but I found it to be a lot more disjointed.