Task Force Z #5 - DC Comics

TASK FORCE Z No. 5, April 2022

Arguably giving Mister Bloom more spotlight than this mini-series’ main protagonist Red Hood, Matthew Rosenberg’s storyline for Issue Five of “Task Force Z” still must have proved a somewhat popular read when it was published in February 2022. In fact, considering just how disconcertingly dark the American author’s script gets as the gangly villain shockingly delivers Man-Bat’s severed head to Geri Powers at her company’s multi-storey headquarters, it is surprising that the “online repository of comic-book circulation data” Comichron only projected the book as being “DC Comics” thirty-ninth best-selling title of the month “based on a subset of retailer initial orders.”

Foremost of this magazine’s strengths however, debatably lies with the fascinatingly fraught relationship between Jason Todd and KGBeast, as the pair clearly don’t like one another and yet Batman’s young protégé still unsuccessfully endeavours to talk his way ‘out of trouble’ when their two opposing super-powered squads suddenly confront one another deep inside a secret laboratory. Anatoli Knyazev’s barbaric personality is especially well-penned, with the former Russian agent’s propensity for needless violence repeatedly coming to fore, most notably when he begins slowly disfiguring a helpless Red Hood at this comic’s conclusion with a combat knife; “Just because you know how this ends does not mean we can’t have some fun before then.”

Similarly as sinister though is Bloom’s aforementioned machinations as he continues to manipulate matters behind the scenes within Task Force Z, even whispering an instruction to kill into a zombified Man-Bat’s ear when it momentarily appears that his team leader has actually managed to convince both Celia Shelley and Knyazev to talk things through. Indeed, considering that “A Whole Lotta Characters Goin’ On” also contains plenty of examples of Amanda Waller’s murderous intrigues, it’s genuinely difficult to discern which of two antagonists is actually acting the more Machiavellian throughout this mini-series.

Perhaps therefore this publication’s only slight quibble comes with some of its artwork, which seems to occasionally shift in style just enough to potentially bring the odd bibliophile out of the book. It’s unclear just why editor Paul Kaminski required four different illustrators to work on this edition, but regular penciller Eddy Barrows’ heavily lined panels are so distinctive that even the slightest variation to his technique disconcertingly catches the eye, and resultantly can momentarily distract the reader from the sense-shattering shenanigans occurring upon the printed page.

The regular cover art of "TASK FORCE Z" #5 by Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira & Adriano Lucas