Task Force Z #8 - DC Comics

TASK FORCE Z No. 8, July 2022

Described in its pre-publication synopsis as comprising of an “All-new team! [with the] Same old problems!” Issue Eight of “Task Force Z” arguably gives the extended Bat-Family significantly more ‘screen time’ than Harvey Dent’s titular squad of undead felons and evil-doers. Indeed, such is the ever-pervading presence of the Dark Knight throughout Matthew Rosenberg’s scintillating script that its cataclysmic events read as if they're occurring within a Batman book rather than one focusing upon “a line-up of some of Gotham City’s worst criminals who’ve ever lived.” 

Admittedly, Bruce Wayne’s alter-ego doesn’t actually appear within this twenty-two-page periodical until its halfway stage, when he arrives to tackle a rampaging Solomon Grundy during a faked heist. But the Caped Crusader’s famous Batmobile is a persistent feature of the storyline straight from the start, and as a result everything which both Two Face and Red Hood do is in direct response to the cowled crimefighter’s night-time patrol; “Ha. You’re not going to fight him. He’d destroy you. You just have to look like you’re going to fight him.”

In addition, Jason Todd’s exhilarating battle against the likes of Nightwing, Red Robin and Batwoman is as a direct result of Batman ordering his proteges to take the crowbar-carrying vigilante into “custody”. This awesome smackdown really does demonstrate just how mercilessly violent ‘The Outlaw’ has become since he was “resurrected by Talia al Ghul using the Lazarus Pit, and then trained by both the League of Assassins and the All-Caste”, as he brutally batters his three opponents within an inch of their lives, especially Timothy Drake – who staggers away from the confrontation with both a broken nose and genuine sense of betrayal as to the behaviour of his mask-wearing predecessor.

Curiously however, perhaps this publication’s greatest asset lies in editor Dave Wielgosz’s decision to utilise the talents of Jesus Merino, Jack Herbert and Vicente Cifuentes as its artists. Obviously, there is some noticeable difference in pencilling styles between the three different illustrators. Yet that doesn’t stop Red Hood’s pulse-pounding punch-up with the Bat-Family, or the Dark Knight’s dynamically drawn fracas against a certain pale-fleshed reanimated corpse from almost literally leaping off the printed page with vibrant energy.

Script: Matthew Rosenberg, and Artists: Jesus Merino, Jack Herbert & Vicente Cifuentes