Deadman #4 Review and **SPOILERS**

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On the Way to Nanda Parbat

Written, Drawn and Colored By: Neal Adams 

Lettered By: Clem Robins 

Cover By: Neal Adams 

Cover Price: $3.99

On Sale Date: February 14, 2018

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

What’s in store for Deadman now? Maybe he’ll slide into another dimension? Perhaps Boston Brand will wind up in the actual city of Boston? Maybe…just maybe Deadman is going to head into space??? It’s a Neal Adams book, so all assumptions are off! Check out my review of Deadman #4, right here!

Explain It!

The most important ability any parent or dictator should cultivate is making people do things they don’t necessarily want to do. People can be forced to accomplish a lot, but the best way is to convince someone that the action they’re performing was their idea in the first place. That’s sort of what happens in this issue of Deadman, except with the usual back-and-forth that leaves you feeling like you’re coming down from a particularly strong chunk of hashish. Deadman’s dad tells him that his brother Aaron is in Nanda Parbat, then a spooky tree tells him to visit Nanda Parbat, but Deadman refuses. Even when giant golden sumo wrestlers—that are not fluffy pillows, no sir—try to drag Boston to Nanda Parbat, he agrees, then refutes and comes back to tell Jinx—that DCU classic purple witch who seems to have powered the ghost tree? Boston tells her that he’s going to Nanda Parbat, but not because she wants him to, but because he wants to. And now, she knows that he knows that she wanted him to go to Nanda Parbat! Also, Boston thinks the purple witch is Vishnu, which she isn’t…or maybe she is? Besides that, he knew that his dad knew that Boston had possessed his brother Cleveland’s body, further exhorting him to go to Nanda Parbat. Families! Can anyone make sense of ‘em?

Things get so weird, even the Spectre gets confused and sort of drifts away to…I dunno, enact God’s vengeance on some other poor turd or something. Meanwhile…in Nanda Parbat? Maybe? Mr. and Mrs. Brand are meeting with Ra’s al Ghul to make sure he knows they’re on the level, and to get a peek at Aaron again for a little inspiration. Etrigan also lurks nearby, because he’s a demon so he can go pretty much wherever he wants. After showing his parents a picture, Ra’s brings Aaron out himself, tended by monkey-faced guards and wearing some kind of restraining device on his hands. When Etrigan attempts to free him, Aaron does a backflip over him and says he doesn’t want to leave at all—the restraints on his hands are part of his strength training, and he pulls them off to prove it. Etrigan keeps trying to haul Aaron back to…somewhere, so Aaron reaches into another dimension and pulls out a crazy-looking, hairy bug that tries to eat Etrigan!

And I didn’t even mention the Yetis! There was a whole thing where Boston’s parents explained that they’d gone to Nanda Parbat several times to get Aaron, but were always repelled by Abominable Snowmen. In any other comic book, that would be a major thing, but here it’s almost an afterthought. This book is definitely banana town crazy pants, but it’s unfortunately more confusing than bizarre. I’m not sure that the two can or should be equated. The visuals continue to be strong in this series, and any fan of Neal Adams’ work will need to give it a look. His cover alone is brilliant.

Bits and Pieces:

I know you think I've given this comic book a low score, but I want you know that I know that you think I've given this a low score, so give that a think, hm?

3.5/10