Deathbed #2 Review and **SPOILERS**

A Twist In My Story

Written by: Joshua Williamson
Art by: Riley Rossmo, Ivan Plascencia, and Deron Bennett
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: March 21, 2018

**NON-SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

This book is still quite the enigma for me. There were some crazy tonal shifts in the first issue and I was shocked at how much I enjoyed Riley Rossmo's art. It was a solid start to a series that could be another Vertigo gem, but Joshua Williamson needs to establish a more concrete tone moving forward. Let's hope that he gets it ironed out soon so that we can have some fun with this series.


Explain It!

Well, it definitely starts off more on the goofy side that the first issue ended on. Luna and Val are blasting through the streets of Paris on a motorcycle and sidecar, trying to get to be heroes. For the last few days in between the first issue and this one, they've been racing around the world trying to save Luna's friends and family from being murdered by the mummy ninjas. In Paris, they are too late once again and they show up to find Underrot dead. At first, Val thinks this was another of Luna's friends, but Underrot was actually one of his oldest foes. The only reason he's upset is because Underrot was the only one left that could validate the story of Luna's early adventures. Luna is really only concerned with the legacy he leaves and the stories that are told about him.

Val is worried about her role in all of this. Luna seems to not give a damn about anyone that leaves his life unless it affects his story, but there is a hit out for anyone associated with him. After going through a few more of his past colleagues that have been killed, they make it to Maggie Mars' funeral. Maggie was another person from Luna's past, one that he apparently dated and loved, that was killed by the ninjas. Luna hears a story being told about Maggie, but decides to interrupt and make himself the center of attention, naturally. Instead of her son's story about his mom starting a charity, Luna tells the story of Maggie and him fighting alien mutants in Nevada.

After his story, Maggie's son isn't too happy. The two of them start screaming back and forth at each other, while Val gets more and more upset. And once again, Riley Rossmo's art is pretty good. His style still isn't my favorite, but it works fairly well for this book. Val eventually snaps and she slaps Luna right across the face. She starts chastising him for his behavior and even reveals that he's the reason Maggie was killed. With that, the guests have had enough and they send Luna and Val running out of the house while they throw bottles at them.

Luna tries to blame Val for what happened but she lays down some knowledge and shows him that he is being self-centered and egotistical. As they're walking along talking, some ninjas in red come up behind them, throw bags over their heads, and throw them in the back of a speeding van. They are then thrown into a plane that is heading for Iceland while a bunch of people start chanting "love or death" over and over. Val thinks this is the end as the people start circling around them and continuing to chant. But the issue ends when Luna tells her not to worry because they are a cult, known as the Church of Luna.

Well, I wanted the tone of the book to be ironed out more and I think now it's clear that Joshua Williamson is going for a goofy, fun book. There is still plenty of room to tell an interesting story here, but I don't expect it to get dark and broody any time soon. Luna is a lot of fun, but I think Val has the potential to turn into a really great character moving forward. If the book keeps moving along like this and the art stays consistent, I can see the series being a lot of fun.

Bits and Pieces

After a first issue that seemed like it wasn't sure what it wanted to be, I enjoyed this issue a whole lot more. The tone of this book definitely isn't dark like I thought it was going to be coming in, and the goofy storytelling was a lot of fun in this one. The art continues to surprise me with how much I like it and the story has just enough intrigue to keep me reading. This was a big jump up from the last one, so I'm going to hope that it keeps with that upward trajectory moving forward.

8.0/10