Deathmate Black

Deathmate Black

This was the other Deathmate book done by the Image crew. And it seems that Jim Lee and Mark Silvestri's studios did most of the work. Set in what seems to be a few years in the future. This shows a world that reminds me of the world from Battle Angel Alita. You get a team made up of members of Cyberforce,Wildcats,X-O Manowar and Turok. And what made this book stand out for years,you get the first apperence of most of the Gen 13 teens. While this has great artwork and a pretty interesting story,it has almost no ties to the other 7 Deathmate books. But this is still my favorite of all teh Deathmate books and the only one I have read more than 4 times. I liked how they updated Turok and the various changes done to the other Valiant heroes appearing. I know for some time after this came out it was the only of the Deathmate books that you had to pay over cover price to get. Mainly based on how hot Gen 13 was for a time. But now it is found in the cheap bins along with the rest of this series. If you feel the need to read Deathmate and don't know where to start pick this up. There is really no need to read the rest of the series to understand what is going on. Deathmate Black gets a B+.

Deathmate Red

Deathmate Red

Considered to be the worst part of the worst big event crossover of the 90s. This came out like 3 months after it was suppose to. And by the time it did ship most people had given up on Deathmate. So this one has the lowest print run of any of the issues. This was the issue that was handled by Rob Liefeld and his crew of talent from Extreme studios. This is mainly various Extreme Studio heroes,IE Youngblood,Brigade,Bloodstrike and Prophet with Bloodshot from Valiant thrown in. Now I am a fan of Bloodshot and looking back the Extreme Studio stuff wasn't as bad as people make it out to be.Sure most of it was generic superhero stuff with not so good art. The storyline in this comic makes no sense and really is barely even connected to the overall Deathmate storyline. Now Rob Liefeld draws a great Bloodshot. And some of the art in this issue would have made great posters,but as a actual comic it fails on so many levels. Deathmate Red gets a F+.