Reviewer: John Babos
Story Title: Everybody against… DEADSHOT …Fair Fight! (from the cover) or Lawton’s Last Stand (Urban Renewal – Part Five) (from the interior)
Written by: Christos N. Gage
Penciled by: Steven Cummings
Inked by: Jimmy Palmiotti
Colored by: James Sinclair
Lettered by: Jared K. Fletcher
Assistant Edited by: Michael Siglain
Edited by: Joey Cavalieri
Published by: DC Comics
DC’s Solicitation
It’s a showdown against half the villains of the DCU as the 5-part miniseries reaches an explosive conclusion! The bad news? They want Deadshot dead! The good news? The fight is on his turf!
The Review
As I indicated on our forum Deadshot #5 was one of my fave reads this week.
In a week that also saw the next installment of the uber-hot Green Lantern: Rebirth epic hit stands plus the conclusion of a time-bending World’s Finest adventure in Superman/Batman – an arc that may actually be a prequel-of-sorts to DC’s big Infinite Crisis event in the Fall – solid books like Deadshot and Blood of the Demon could easily and unfortunately be overlooked.
The latter two occupy my gold and silver reading spots this week, but this is a Deadshot review so I’ll let me colleague Coren handle the Blood of the Demon review which should be up this Thursday.
Deadshot #5 wraps up the Urban Renewal mini-series in a way fitting with Floyd Lawton’s nom de guerre of Deadshot. That said, while this was a guns-a-blazing finale to a rather solid mini-series, the strengths of this issue were the human moments between Floyd and his family. These were moments you may not have expected from a book featuring a gun-toting morally-gray protagonist.
Interestingly, its been this humanity that has stood out in the series. Perhaps I’m elevating its importance because I truly did not expect such captivating inner-city realism and emotional evolution in the book. The depth that’s been added to the already rich character of Floyd Lawton / Deadshot through this mini-series definitely rings true with what’s came before and fits as a emotional springboard for stories yet to be written. His ex and his daughter make him vulnerable in a way that we haven’t seen for some time if ever.
In terms of the capital “A” action of the book I found the motley crew of villainous z-listers that Gage chose to tangle with Deadshot while appropriate from a continuity perspective were not as intimidating a threat as I would have liked. They were comical choices portrayed as serious threats though.
That said, it was the drama and emotional journey that Floyd was on in this series that was its heart and raison d’etre, so these unimpressive antagonists served to challenge Deadshot, but not take the limelight away from his inner journey. It was the lead up to that expected battle and its aftereffects that were more important for the story than the battle itself – although the battle was well choreographed with the z-listers taking on ‘Shot.
The fluid pencils and vibrant colors contrasted the serious tone of the action and drama as it has all throughout this mini-series.
As I have said before, Deadshot’s “new” costume is uninspired and I’m glad that in the upcoming Villains United mini-series he’s back to his “classic” duds – as can be seen for that mini’s second issue shipping this June:
By the way, Villains United #1 hits stores May 4th and Deadshot should be front-and-centre in this mini-series. Look for this cover the first week of May to get your shot of ‘Shot:
