With the Earth 2 Villains Month book, DC is really reaching. Desaad? Seriously? Does anybody care enough about Desaad to spend twenty-two pages with the guy? I fully understand he’s one of Darkseid’s servants, but still, a whole book? Last we saw of the purple-cloaked torture expert, he had been Shazamed out of Mary Marvel. Now we get an entire book about him?
Earth 2 #15.1 is also rather meaningless. There is no point to this story, and it serves no greater good. Desaad opens the story by killing a great white shark. Then he crawls out of the ocean, and kills a beach bum by touching him. Apparently, this new, souped-up model of Desaad runs on fear. It’s like Tinkerbell, only it’s the more you fear, the stronger he gets. From there, the quirky mass murderer enters a hospital, and starts killing more people. One guy even guts himself with scalpel.
Jumping ahead, Desaad has created an entire underground lair where he and his minions attempt to open the portal that will allow Desaad to go back to Apokolips. In order for it to work, his minions must steal one last piece of hi-tech gadgetry. Closing in on this last piece, the minions discover it stolen, ripped from the very foundations that held it. We’re really not sure what “it” is, but Desaad needs it badly. In the end, Desaad’s evil façade breaks for a second as he kneels before a statue of Darkseid, begging his master to return and bring him home.
Just for information’s sake, let me explain that while this is an Earth 2 book, this story has nothing to do with Earth 2. The only hint of Earth 2 is a line tossed out about the disappearance of Michael Holt, aka Mister Terrific. This book doesn’t even shill for an upcoming storyline in a future issue, nor does it involve itself with Forever Evil. It’s like DC was trying to find something for Earth 2 and asked out loud, “Who’s left?” The answer came back and Desaad was slightly more interesting than Bat-Mite (not to me).
The crushing part is how much this wastes the brilliant writing ability of Paul Levitz. This man has penned some classics, including a fabulous run on The Legion of Super-Heroes. Why not have him write something awesome for the Joker (not the crap Andy Kubert wrote) instead of this useless Desaad story? Even in the mire of this book, Levitz still writes it well. A clear example of his genius.
Yiloiray Cinar’s art helps to keep Earth 2 #15.1 from tanking. The work here is nicely detailed, with Cinar doing a great job on Desaad’s look. Even if his story is weak, the character looks menacing. Cinar pencils bring to life the awful things happening. He creates true terror in the eyes of Desaad’s victims. He also has a great way with machinery and technology. I’d love to see Cinar pencil an all-Apokolips book.
While not a badly written story, Desaad’s Earth 2 one-shot is terrifyingly unnecessary.
(3 Story, 4 Art)
