Comic – Death Sentence: London #6

Steve Taylor-Bryant gets to the end of this string of the Death Sentence story, London, which is out now. Review contains spoilers!…

Issue 6 of the brilliant Death Sentence: London starts with The Island and Simmonds’ art captures the environment perfectly. All dark tones and blues that really help you picture a remote island in the mind’s eye and then the hint of colour, with blood on a sheep as Jeb is being rebuked by an agent, is actually quite terrifying! Back in Brixton and this is most definitely Roots’ territory. The narration describes the London belonging to the world within Death Sentence brilliantly, with Monty Nero’s usual brand of dystopia and swearing, which I still love and never gets old. Within the protest panel there are real world issues jumping out of this imaginary scenario with the ‘Black Lives Matter’ placard particularly on point news wise. Retch! His friends aren’t the only ones surprised to see him raised from the dead.

Camden and Art Girl, Verity, is trawling the internet seeing the news of The Invaders when an Agent spots her through the window of the Internet Café, reporting back to his department and getting them to hack what she is looking at. Back in Brixton and the Freedom Concert and we finally get Weasel back doing what Weasel does best – playing to his audience. Meanwhile Verity is being followed.

In the sub-levels of The Island base, Jeb finally meets Dr. Lunn and, in Brixton, the Army are planning to strike on Roots with helicopters and battalions whilst Retch is losing his temper slightly at the concert with what he thinks are basically hippies at a music festival and starts a little killing spree before going live on television with his threats and rhetoric, basically telling the entire city he is going to kill them all. Cheery fellow.

On The Island, Dr. Lunn is going through Jeb’s instructions and the levels of authority he can and cannot enter and explains to Jeb that they are making G+ Embryos. Retch catches up with Roots who is on her own and he and his minions attack. Roots calls up a huge plant whilst, on the streets, there is chaos. The Army starts to go in even harder with their attack whilst Verity runs from her pursuers. The Army opens fire and people are dying, Weasel doesn’t do anything to help and escapes. As the gangs turn on them, The Army opens fire with Goemel Darts which change them into hideous monsters, with Verity stuck in the middle. Dr. Lunn is explaining that G+ infected people are being encouraged to sleep together in their experiment so that they can try and gain a cure from a foetus DNA. That foetus is inside Verity!

These last 6 issues of Death Sentence: London are now completed with the story continuing early next year in another 6 issue run of comics that will be called Death Sentence: Revolt and I CANNOT WAIT for it to start. That’s the power of Monty Nero’s writing. For every moment of humour and for every exotic take on a swearword, there is a real story, real characters, living real world issues as well as the imaginary problems that are part of the fiction. Unlike most comics, superhero ones especially, you get to know these characters, you get to see which ones you really feel for, which ones you hate and, the entire time, Nero is mixing in real life political moments of corporate deception, rogue politicians just out for themselves, groups that want to take on authority, war mongering and the effect that all these issues have on daily lives. Did I mention the exotic take on swearwords yet? Brilliant.

Martin Simmonds has really bought into what Nero is doing and his art is sublime, characters drawn well, but it’s the use of colour that drives the story. Whether it’s the greens and reds of the Roots sections, the blues of the island, or the incredible yet subtle mixes of the two, or the effects when Verity unleashes her art power, you can’t help but be in awe of what is produced. Roll on next year and more of the same please.

Image - Titan Comics

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