Deathbed is published by Vertigo, and written by Joshua Williams (The Flash) with art by Riley Rossmo (The Batman Who Laughed).
The story kicks off with a birth in a cabin. The swampy setting is crawling with all kinds of dark and creepy looking critters. A father holds up his newborn child and tells the world he’s going to be the greatest man to live. Then our story switches gears drastically to introduce Val. Valentine Richards is a failed writer.
While Val is on the shitter she gets a phone call from her editor asking her to ghost-write a memoir. Neither of them have heard of the man making the request. All they know is he has some serious coin he is offering up, and that he’s requested Val. She tells her editor she’s busy and doesn’t want to deal with it. Her editor lets her know that her contract was not renewed.
The next page shows her in front of a huge mansion, obviously she took the job. Val tried to look up her client before arriving, but found nothing about him listed online. She’s going totally blind into this, but is happy about making money. Val enters the mansion and is greeted by a full staff, and oddly dim lighting.
The maid sets off to show Val to Mr. Antonio Luna’s room. As they make their way through the mansion the ladies pass huge paintings of Mr. Luna’s accomplishments. Luna is well-traveled and adventurous going by the paintings. Val pretends to care about the things depicted. But, she’s obviously a terrible liar. Once they arrive Val sees a feeble looking man lying in bed.
The feeble man is Antonio Luna, and he yells at his staff to leave his room so he can talk to Val alone. Once they are alone she starts off by asking him basic questions. It is obvious Val has no clue who Luna is, and he immediately gives her shit for that. So, she asks why he wants her to write his auto-biography. He replies with “My story is the greatest of all time…It must be told.”
While all this is going down the artwork conveys a totally different story. They aren’t actually alone in the room. There are creatures in there as well. But, both parties seem oblivious to this while they argue back and forth. Val asks if he has any regrets, and he tells her he does not. He wouldn’t allow himself to get bored and if he did he would “reinvent himself” and start fresh.
That’s when they notice a sound nearby, and Luna leans in close to Val as he wants to make a confession to her. His confession and actions afterwards are what will make Val feel inspired to write for the first time since she won that award back in Grade School. So, of course she agrees to write his memoir.
I kept this spoiler free. There is something I need to stress here though, my review may have made this tale seem boring. I assure you, it is not boring in the least. Some insane things happen during Luna’s confession that you just have to see for yourself to fully enjoy. And, the best part? The tale is absurd and gruesome in the best way. Humor, action, and horror blend together flawlessly in Deathbed.
Antonio Luna is one of those ridiculous adventurer characters that has seen nearly everything twice, maybe three times. Luna is fully prepared to murder a fly buzzing 3 miles away from him if he has to. And, Val is the polar opposite. She seems to have barely lived and just kind of exists now. This pairing couldn’t be better. I think they will be good for each other, and I hope Val becomes more of a bad ass herself. I can’t wait to see how this tale progresses. I feel like Deathbed is shaping up to be one of my favorite comics of 2018, and is one of the more original tales I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing.
Rating: 9/10
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