Deathrage #3: Kickstarter Edition is a comic written by Murphey and published by Merc Publishing. Right after things have finally calmed down for Deathrage they get hectic one again. Our titular character is supported and/or embattled by a cast of ladies that have made an appearance in this story before; Marla, Candy, and Fire Kiss. The needle doesn’t really move in terms of plot, we do get some information about motivations and goals but this is really an all-hands issue. And by hands I mean fighting. Most of this comic is just straight scrapping. Most of the dialogue is snappy and snarky as one would expect during a fight scene, but the overall vibe of this series seems to be a mutual dislike of all characters by each other. No wordiness problems here at all, this reads as fast as the action does. After an opening issue that set up the story and a second issue that gave us some more specific plot direction we get an issue that doesn’t try to tell us much of anything except how skilled the main character is. Think of this as Deathrage the character’s audition tape.
This comic mainly takes inside and directly outside of what looks a motel of the most seedy quality. Our main character is wearing a mask but the screen on it does change a bit. The other characters with uncovered faces do pick up the slack and give us looks of confusion, anger, and others in between. Deathrage looks like Deadpool if he was slightly inspired by Rob Liefield. Most of the other characters are ether wearing a suit or a bunny(no ears) costume, depending on gender. Weapon variety is strong here; you’ll even see some that probably shouldn’t be there. There is a lot of stabbing, slicing, and blood in this in this issue, it gets real close to Tarantino levels. Despite the hecticness the fight scenes flow well and you won’t get confused. Unless you count the wearing of the bunny costumes, there isn’t really any oversexualization here.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes.
“Would I like this?”
If you like action at the forefront and don’t mind blood this is for you. This takes place in a world with superpowers so this aren’t your average tussles.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
- Blood and gore.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“The first one was for the burn…this one’s for me…”
PDF Link: https://mercmagazine.com/collections/deathrage/products/deathrage-3-pdf-download
Retail Link: https://mercmagazine.com/collections/deathrage/products/deathrage-4
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mercmagazine/deathrage-3-retaliation/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 21
Violent Pages: 9, for 43% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic
**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**
Violence Level – 4
“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”
“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”
“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”
“This was a tournament arc.”
“All my life I had to fight.”
Gore Level – 5
“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”
“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”
“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”
“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”
“This is a slaughterhouse.”
Death Level – 3
“And everybody lived happily ever after.”
“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”
“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”
“Yeah this was a tragedy.”
“Think Gettysburg.”
Porn Level – 1
“Everybody kept their clothes on.”
“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”
“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”
“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”
“Oh. This is porn.”
