Deathrage #4: Retail Edition is a comic written by Murphey with illustrations by Emiliano Urdinola and colors by Gaston Zubeldia. Deathrage and Fire Kiss take a breather before continuing on their mission. This issue is has a bit of everything from medical work, violence, revelations, and more violence. The person at the center of most of these scuffles is Deathrage, a man with rage issues under the control of a mask that attempts to direct towards some unknown goal. He is accompanied by Fire Kiss, a woman with the ability to summon fire from her hands and sporting an outfit that’ll make you think of the circus. The plot picks right up right where the last one left with our heroes nursing wounds after a fight. Though it seems like it’ll be a more relaxed story this time around it only get more intriguing from there. The action is pretty light for a Merc Publishing comic but you’ll still have a good time. It does get a bit sexy early but it chills out after. The dialogue is witty from Deathrage but to-the-point from everyone else. We get a bit of info dump/backstory here so a few pages encroach on or reach high word counts. Overall this is a nice relatively calming issue that’s building us up to something big.
This is drawn in a very detailed style but not with the same smoothness you see in most modern comics. This rougher look gives the story a grittier air. This is also well-colored with nice shadowing. This story takes place in two main locations with one being a home and the other being much grander. Excluding Deathrage who has an emoting mask, the expression level shown here is pretty good and makes the characters seem alive. Faces boasting this amount of detail are much easier to read and give their words more weight. Bodies this time go from fit and normal looking to something else. The action is mostly off-screen and/or fire-based. Any of the lengthier scenes are laid out in a way that you won’t get lost. The outfits are pretty skintight across the board with some combat gear elements to them. There is a bit sexualization here but it isn’t out of place.
You may have noticed that this is the exact same review as the Kickstarter Edition, which is due to them being identical except for the speech patterns of a character named Pixel. It also appears to be a bit more polished, but that might be due to me reading a physical edition.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes.
“Would I like this?”
If you like tales starring anti-hero superfolk dealing with confusing plots and lead by a male-female duo this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Burning hot, bloody, clothing optional.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“Blood pressure rising. You are losing your temper. It is not helpful.”
Physical Link: https://mercpublishing.com/products/deathrage-4-cover-b-tony-moy?_pos=4&_sid=33bcee127&_ss=r
Digital Link: https://mercpublishing.com/products/deathrage-4-cover-b-tony-moy?_pos=4&_sid=33bcee127&_ss=r
Unboxing Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09BtikvJjwY
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 20
Violent Pages: 7, for 35% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 3, for 15% of the comic
**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**
Violence Level – 3
“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 – 3
“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 – 5
“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.”
