Review: Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love

Quick Summary

Pros: The book is unique, especially in regards to DC Comics. The social themes broached here represent issues not often seen in mainstream comics. The collection looks beautiful and perfectly captures the tone of the work.

Cons: The book’s mystery plotline starts out well but ends rather weakly. The book’s romance plotline fails to really generate any real interest from the start.

Overall: This is a comic that excels in bringing underrepresented social issues to the table in an organic manor but fails in generating an interesting storyline. There is a decent mystery here and a sweet love story, but the mystery stumbles at the end and the love story is too generic to work on its own. Ultimately, if you want to see a mainstream comic take on progressive social issues, you can find it here, but you might not have the most entertaining story to accompany you on your read.

Story

Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love, by Sarah Vaughn, is a Gothic horror that stands out as unique among DC Comic’s typical offerings. It forgoes typical superhero fare and even deemphasizes the importance of Deadman, in order to focus on a more personal and human struggle. This allows the book to broach numerous social issues, such as gender identity, consent, and breaking with conformity. However, a few missteps in this drama hurt its overall appeal and leave the book’s entertainment value to be derived from the horror, which only works as a moderately entertaining mystery. The overall effect is a book that succeeds in connecting with underrepresented social issues but comes across as lackluster when it comes to the actual plot.

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As a Gothic horror book, the setting and mystery provide the backbone of this collection. The story takes place in an old mansion, where Berenice and her boyfriend have been spending their days recently. Berenice soon discovers that the place is haunted by a mysterious darkness rooted in the mansion’s past and, together with Deadman, begins to investigate.

This is the portion of the book that will draw in reader interest. There is a clear and present danger posed by the darkness haunting the mansion that injects some suspense into the mix. Plus, Adelia Ruskin’s death and her appearance as a ghost in the mansion keeps a solid mystery going. However, the lack of emphasis on this mystery and the fact that the ending is telegraphed from a mile away make this portion of the story fail to live up to its initial hype.

Through this mystery provides the backbone of the story, much of the focus is placed on the human element. Berenice is dissatisfied in her current relationship and finds herself inexplicably drawn to her friend Sam. All the while, she seeks to hide her ability to see ghosts because she fears revealing this truth about herself will scare away the people in her life.

Almost every story element surrounding Berenice is a clever piece of social commentary. Some are introduced directly; the narration explicitly states Berenice’s desire to break from conformity throughout the text and directly approaches the issue of consent when discussing Deadman’s powers. However, some are more introduced in more subtle ways; Berenice’s reluctance to talk about her powers is a possible allegory for many individuals’ reluctance to talk about their sexuality or gender identity. These are progressive issues that don’t often receive much attention in mainstream comics but are handled remarkably well here.

The only problem is that the actual story surrounding these social themes is not that interesting. It is a tremendously generic love triangle that any reader can predict the ending to from miles away. In addition, the pivotal moment of this arc, when Berenice finally reveals her ability to see ghosts, is handled rather poorly. Sam’s instant acceptance of her claim is done so that readers can have a definitive moment where they can see that Sam is better for Berenice than Nathan. However, it so illogical that it broke my suspension of disbelief; most people will agree that if a loved one told them that they could see ghosts, that they would at least be a bit hesitant to accept it. The social themes here are great but are just not done in a way that captivates or entertains in quite the way they need to.

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Art

While the story might vary in quality, the artwork is constantly good throughout the collection. Lan Medina’s visuals are instantly recognizable and set the book apart as something unique right off the bat. He creates a mansion that appears steeped in history and characters full of personality. He also weaves the supernatural elements into the mix in a way that seems completely natural and almost seems to flow right from the mansion itself. Together with José Villarrubia’s colors, the creative team here has developed a visual style that perfectly hits the horror/romance tone that the stories calls for. This is a nice looking book that compliments the story very well.

Continuity

Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love is a miniseries generally unconnected to the rest of the DC Universe continuity. Deadman’s appearance here does not follow or precede any particular comic book.