Task Force Z #12 - DC Comics

TASK FORCE Z No. 12, November 2022

Described by “DC Comics” in their pre-publication solicitation as “Jason Todd’s final second chance”, this twenty-two-page periodical’s plot surely must have enthralled its audience with its variety of twists and turns. Indeed, every time Matthew Rosenberg pens for a chilling confrontation to take place between his storyline's numerous heavy hitters, the author immediately wrong-foots the reader by suddenly swapping one opponent out for another; “Harvey… I believe we were still talking when you dropped that building on me.”

Happily however, such a rotating carousel of pulse-pounding pugilists never gets tiring, especially when the likes of Solomon Grundy, Gotham Girl and Henry Clover Junior increasingly start to vent their pent up anger upon Mister Bloom. Furthermore, there’s a lot of cleverly-written dialogue to be navigated whilst the ferocious fisticuffs are taking place, with various members of this book’s sizeable cast undergoing some intriguing character development – most notably that of Harvey Dent, who quite delightfully returns to his dark Two-Face persona so as to create a new, non-government sanctioned “Task Force Z” who will doubtless be mass-murdering zombie criminals as opposed to covert super-powered operatives.

Just as well done is how all the utter carnage, death and large-scale destruction caused by “an anonymous participant of Daryl Gutierrez's underground metahuman experiments” is succinctly folded into the DC Universe’s ongoing canon without causing too much of a ripple in the current status quo. Sure, Jason Todd departs for West Texas having been erroneously thought dead following the literal collapse of Powers International Headquarters. But considering just how many villains and anti-heroes were killed during this twelve-issue mini-series some bibliophiles will be amazed that the vast majority are at least temporarily brought back by its end, courtesy of a single Lazarus Resin injection.

Helping to project the huge quantity of damage and debris caused by Mister Bloom’s maniacal machinations is Eddy Barrows, who along with inker Eber Ferreira and colorist Adriano Lucas, provides this comic with an incalculable number of broken bricks, support beams and billowing dust clouds. In addition, the Brazilian artist does a terrific job with the layouts illustrating Dent’s decline back into his heinous alter-ego. The horrific, cold-blooded murder of the Gotham Morgue technicians is chillingly pencilled, and probably only ‘out done’ by this title’s final (splash) page which shows a disconcertingly grinning Two Face gleefully looking forward to his future “big plans.”

The regular cover art of "TASK FORCE Z" #12 by Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira & Adriano Lucas