Originally published on Patreon
Task Force Z is one of those titles that's kind of ridiculous. Suicide Squad, but with zombies. I mean, it sounds wild as a concept, so the fact that Matthew Rosenberg has managed to make it not only entertaining, but really engaging, is a pleasant surprise.
I thought that Task Force Z was going to be one of those books that ends up as a bit of fluff, some good entertainment that does its job but not much else. But this series has been great for exploring the character of Jason Todd, and even Harvey Dent.
This issue opens with Jason and Steph, picking up on some of the events of the previous issue, where Jason got into a scrap with the Bat Family. I love Steph here, and her way of approaching Jason like a regular human being rather than a vigilante hero. She knows how Jason works, and knows how to approach him without it turning into a huge fight. And it's one of the reasons why she's such a great character.
The rest of the issue explores Jason continuing to work with his team, trying to get things back up and running the way they were to begin with; and Doctor Bloom continuing his strange machinations at his secret lab. Both stories move forward, and we get some good developments from both of them.
I've been enjoying the pacing of this series, and the fact that it's not afraid to slow down at times and let the characters breathe (those who can). The interaction between Bloom and Langstrom was a fun little moment, and the meeting between Jason, Dent, and Black Mask was a stand out for the issue. The wild zombie action might be fun, but the real enjoyment of this story comes from the characters getting to do stuff outside of a fight.
I love how this series has taken a wild, ridiculous premise and made it work as well as it has. We've got zombies running around the DC universe, and it's not breaking anything. This could have easily been a big, bombastic story set in its own little continuity like DC Vs Vampires or Marvel Zombies, but setting it in the regular continuity makes it so much more interesting because it has to be really careful abut what it does and who it kills. It makes it such an interesting book.
This series is continuing to improve each issue, and is one of the ones that I'm always happy to see each month. I'm excited to see what comes next.
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