Review: Emotions Ratchet Up In ‘Everything Dead & Dying’ #3
by Tom Smithyman
Overview
It’s so refreshing when a story that start our great only gets better. That’s the case with Everything Dead & Dying, one of the best new series of the year. You don’t need to like zombie stories to love what this creative team is producing.
Overall
10/10Being a parent is one of the most joyful and fulfilling jobs imaginable. But it comes at a high cost. Chief among them: worrying about the safety of your child. Most parents would do anything — anything — to protect their children.
That supreme sacrifice is front and center in the middle chapter of the zombie story Everything Dead & Dying. Jack has already lost everything. His husband, his community, and even his daughter have been turned into the undead. And still, Jack has given up everything to keep them safe and keep some semblance of normalcy in their un-lives.
In fact, as we learn in this issue, Jack keeps the entire zombie town so well fed that they go about their old normal lives — delivering the mail, walking babies, selling their goods — despite being undead. Call it supernatural muscle memory. But when a group of intruders stumbles into the town and think they are rescuing Jack, all hell breaks loose.
This issue, beautifully written by Tate Bromal, focuses on Jack’s daughter Daisy. Jack flashes back to the adoption process, Daisy’s adolescence, and even her first encounter with death. The action switches between those memorable moments and her zombie reality as Jack desperately tries to protect her from the intruders.
Brombal brings such compassion to Jack that it is understandable why he’s committed himself to the unthinkable — protecting his undead family from the living. As outrageous as it sounds, in Brombal’s hands, it’s believable. What lengths would we go to in order to preserve the ones we love?
There is plenty of action in this issue as well, all expertly depicted by artist Jacob Phillips. Each character is easily identifiable, and the shifts from the past to the bloody present are seamless. Colorist Pip Martin is also in top form with splashes of ruby blood staining nearly everyone — human and zombie alike.
This limited series started strong and continues to strengthen its emotional hold on readers. It’s already one of the best new titles of the year. Where it goes from here is anybody’s guess.
Everything Dead & Dying #3 is available now in comic book stores and on digital platforms from Image Comics.