Comic Review – “Deadline”

This miniseries introduced Katherine “Kat” Farrell,
Daily Bugle reporter and promised regular cast member
on The Pulse.

General Information

Title: Deadline

Author: Bill Rosemann

Illustrator(s): Guy Davis

Original Publication Date: 2002

ISBN: 0-7851-1010-0

Cover Price: $9.99US, $15.95 Can

Buy from: Amazon.com
or Amazon.ca

Past comic reviews can be found here.

Premise

Kat Farrell, a Daily Bugle reporter, hates the
“Capes” she’s been
assigned to report on. An opportunity to advance
soon becomes
available, though.

High Point

Ze Leaper

Low Point

Two visits for the goldfish bit? I don’t see the
point of coming in
twice, especially given the risks involved in coming
in.

The Scores

This feels original for a comic book. We’ve
got interesting
characters, including a very human lead character who
doesn’t like
superheroes at all. There are some interesting turns
in the
resolution, too. I give it 5 out of 6.

The artwork is good enough to avoid
ambiguity, but still
pretty ugly most of the time. I give it 3 out of 6.

The story is fairly well plotted, apart from
the Low Point.
I like the idea of using the goldfish this way, but
dragging it out
like this makes it feel like it’s being dragged out
to maintain an
extra mystery from issue to issue. The identity of
Kat’s source is
enough for that. I give it 4 out of 6.



The characterization of Kat is excellent.
We know who she is
and where she stands from the outset. Her internal
monologues are
informative, but only get boring in the requisite
“remind the reader
about the last issue” bits that don’t work as well in
a trade
paperback. I give it 5 out of 6.

The emotional response is fairly strong,
even without the
month-long wait times to build suspense. Some
moments are amusing,
while others are just plain interesting. There
weren’t enough suspects
for the main mystery, though, so there wasn’t much of
a surprise in
terms of the identity. (The motive had a nice idea
behind it,
though.) I give it 4 out of 6.

The flow needs work. The main story is well
done, but the
little things often had problems. We’ve got the
world’s fastest
tattoo artist in one scene, and a woman who can
shower, dress, debate
smoking, and leave her apartment in less time than it
takes to listen
to three answering machine messages in another. These
are script-end
problems that the artist should have spoken up about.
I give it 3 out
of 6.

Overall, it’s a better miniseries than its
profile and sales
would indicate. If you enjoy Astro City or
plan to follow
The Pulse, I’d strongly suggest picking it
up. Other readers
may be interested, too, as long as you’re willing to
see average
people in a world of superheroes without massive
battle sequences. I
give it 4 out of 6.

In total, Deadline receives 28 out of 42.

Additional Notes and Comments

I’ve got a review of Sojourn Vol. 4: The Theif’s
Tale

pending, too. However, most of the recent articles
seem to be comic
reviews, so I might sit on it until next week, which
looks a bit
lighter on the comic side.