Advance Review — ‘Dead By Daylight Vol. 2: The Hillbilly’ Is A Bloody Missed Opportunity

With its roster of memorable killers, the video game Dead by Daylight seems like a natural fit for comic books. Unfortunately, Dead by Daylight Vol. 2: The Hillbilly — collected here in a four-issue trade paperback — proves that translating a game’s mythology to the printed page isn’t always a straightforward proposition.

Writer Derek Fridolfs takes an interesting approach to the story, focusing initially on small-town police officer Darnell Hollis rather than the titular killer. After making a major drug bust, Hollis finds himself on the fast track to success. But his new standing with the department comes with a catch: his chief and a group of fellow officers take him to a farm for an initiation that quickly turns into a nightmare.

What follows is a story of police corruption, racial tension, and a young cop caught in a situation beyond his control. It’s an intriguing premise, and Hollis makes for a sympathetic protagonist. The problem: readers presumably picked up this book to learn more about Max Thompson Jr., the chainsaw-wielding monster known as the Hillbilly. And for much of the first half of the series, he’s barely around.

Fridolfs eventually shifts the spotlight to the killer, revealing more of his horrific upbringing and his escape from the farm where he was abused and chained up. These sequences deliver the bloody goods, but the character development feels rushed. Given the time spent establishing Hollis and the corrupt cops, the Hillbilly’s eventual transformation into a killing machine lacks the emotional weight it deserves.

Artist Dean Kotz gives the series a suitably grimy, almost 1970s exploitation-film aesthetic. His rough, muddy linework is an effective match for the story’s rural setting and gruesome violence. Allison Hu’s colors and AndWorld Design’s lettering round out a package that captures the game’s oppressive atmosphere.

The story’s conclusion aligns with the video game’s mythology, but it doesn’t provide a particularly satisfying conclusion. Hollis’ fate feels more like an unfortunate plot development than the payoff to a carefully constructed character arc.

The Hillbilly has some genuinely effective horror and an interesting premise. But by spending so much time away from its title character, the series misses an opportunity to give one of the game’s most recognizable killers a compelling origin story. Gamers and comic book fans deserve better.

Dead by Daylight Vol. 2: The Hillbilly will be available on December 8th in comic book stores and on digital platforms from Titan Comics.