Task Force Z #2 - DC Comics

TASK FORCE Z No. 2, January 2022

With the notable exception of a short-lived shower room scene set at the Chop Shop involving Jason Todd and the disagreeable Doctor Shelley, Matthew Rosenberg’s fast-paced narrative for Issue Two of “Task Force Z” probably kept most of its readers on the edge of their seats. Indeed, it’s arguably difficult to imagine a bumpier rollercoaster of a ride than the one penned for this twenty-two-page periodical, as Batman’s former Boy Wonder lurches from one Undead disaster to another in the hope of thwarting the “organised ranks of Lazarus resin dealers in the world.”

Rather pleasingly however, all these high-octane antics genuinely seem to progress this mini-series’ overall storyline rather than help ‘pad out’ the plot, with even Arkham Knight’s desperate attempt to eat her partially frozen team leader’s brain leading into an uncomfortable conversation between the two later, after Astrid has consumed enough “medicine” to almost fully regenerate her usual zombified corpse. Such moments of character development are admittedly rather brief within “Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow.” But they really help the reader begin to understand just why certain members of the cadaver-filled super-group are working for the mysterious Director Crispin, and even start to show Todd slowly warming to the more ‘human’ side of his comrades-in-arms.

In addition, the pulse-pounding action on display is incredibly well-written as it quickly becomes clear by the end of this publication that absolutely no-one is safe from a ‘fate worse than death’ in a world where a noxious injection can ‘easily’ return them to some sort of animated life. This perturbing possibility persistently hangs over the heads of this comic’s considerable cast like the sword of Damocles, so when Task Force Z inadvertently encounter a theatre packed full of the Kobra Cult’s latest members, the possibility of the “team of unstable monsters” lethally losing at least one of their number to the worshippers of the snake god Kali-Yuga is excitingly rather plausible; “Bane fell in a hole, not sure if he’s coming back. Miss Hobart might need an exorcist. But nobody tried to eat me, so that’s a win.”

Also helping to populate this book’s panels with plenty of scarred flesh and buckets of blood is Eddy Barrows, whose pencils do a terrific job of depicting many of Rosenberg’s more macabre moments. The slow, almost painful approach of a legless Arkham Knight slowly dragging her emaciated corpse towards a helpless Jason is incredibly well-sketched, as is Bane literally towering over a group of fanatical cultists and ripping their mortal bodies asunder whilst they ineffectively tear away at his formidable-sized frame with knives and bullets.

The regular cover art of "TASK FORCE Z" #2 by Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira & Adriano Lucas