Comic Vine Review

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Dead Body Road #5

4

Gage was able to escape his enemies on the road, but how long will he and the others be safe? And can they even trust one another?

The Good

DEAD BODY ROAD continues to prove it's the king of pure badassery. With this latest chapter, Justin Jordan and Matteo Scalera dish out some absolutely savage and vicious madness. Sure, there's a wee bit of development in the beginning, but it's not long at all before the bullets start flying.

What occurs is ridiculously brutal and all kinds of unfortunate for these fictional characters, but from our perspective, these are some legitimately thrilling bits of action. Jordan's stuck to a no-nonsense script and the mayhem is every bit as blunt. Every bullet wound and kill is sure to either make you gasp, cringe or even cheer. There's been some crazy stuff in this limited series (e.g. the entire last issue), but the ax kill in this one has to be my favorite so far. It's such a twisted incident yet Jordan manages to fill it with a little bit of levity and the end result is a brief and oh-so-violent scene that's a total blast.

Artist Matteo Scalera and colorist Moreno Diniso prove yet again they're the perfect visual team for this fast-paced and completely frenetic story. These characters and environments are filled with grit yet the coloring remains bold and clean, so it's a really nice contrast that continues to give this book some mighty fine looking pages. The reactions from these characters remain on point as they find themselves on the wrong end of a gun or crack a sick smile as they get their hands on a weapon. The handling of the action is flawless, too. Scalera's the master of conveying energy and, with this series, he's given the chance to unleash plenty of absurdly swift and explosive moments. Every single shot and hit is packed with an insane amount of force. Issue after issue, I can rely on Jordan for some fast-paced craziness and it's more than clear Scalera and Diniso will do a brilliant job bringing it all to life.

The Bad

Jordan's taken steps to establish the basics behind the three main characters' personalities and that's front and center early on in this issue, but truthfully, it's tough to feel an emotional connection to any of them. So when you're not sure whether they'll work together or betray one another, it's tough -- for me, at least -- to really feel linked to the tension or really care all that much about their fate.

The Verdict

DEAD BODY ROAD is a relentless thrill ride. You may not find yourself all that invested in where the narrative will go or the fate of these characters, but you will absolutely be blown away by each and every issue. Jordan and Scalera are doing a phenomenal job hitting us with some truly exciting stuff and the experience continues to get crazier and crazier. If do want to dive into this hectic story, you''ll unfortunately feel completely lost if you hop on with issue. So if you are interested -- and you should be if you love chaotic action and heist stories -- I strongly recommend picking up the other chapters as well.