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Deathwish
Collect the issues #1-4 of Deathwish miniseries writen by Maddie Blaustein and penciled by J.H. Whilliams III
122 pages, Paperback
Published December 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 15, 2022
”Blow your brains out—or try to blow out mine. Your decision.”
A spinoff following his appearance in Hardware Man in the Machine, Deathwish goes about telling a story not even seen in many comics nowadays let alone the mid 90’s when this was written: A love story between a lesbian transgender couple written by two trans writers before their own transitions. It’s kind of insane how ahead of its time and personal this book is.
It follows Marissa Rahm, a trans police detective who has recently transitioned female, who is pursuing the serial killer Boots, a serial killer who targets transgenders and kills them in fucked up recreations of famous artwork. Enter Deathwish, a Punisher-like character who targets sex criminals, teaming up with Marissa in a way to take down Boots once and for all. And yes this series is “Mature Readers Only” as you can tell by the summary, making it one of three Milestone series to be rated that along with Xombi & Wise Son: The White Wolf.
Deathwish had previously appeared in three issues of Hardware (#5-7) in the character’s first collected edition and would go on to appear in three more issues (#26-28) as that series went on. This is what Deathwish was up to in between his Hardware appearances. If you also want to read more on this character, the 6 issues of Hardware listed above are his only other appearances.
How does it hold up today? Amazingly. This book is, as I said before, mad ahead of its time, with art that is incredibly rendered by the now well-known artists of J.H. Williams III & Jimmy Palmiotti, while written by Maddie Blaustein & Yves Fezzani before they both transitioned female, making this tale clearly personal for them. Blaustein handled the dialogue while Fezzani plotted the story itself out. I would say don’t read this if sexual assault or rape upsets you because Deathwish’s backstory is basically just the Punisher’s except his family is raped in front of him as well as killed. So yeah, it can be very hard to read and stomach, but if you can get past that though, there’s a solid story here.
Shakespearian sonnets are used at the beginning and end of each issue to parallel events going on in the story. The story itself is extremely engaging, with a fucking tragic love story at its center that hit me right in the feels the entire time, but especially by the end. Oh man. that ending was an absolute gut punch. The ending letter by Yves Fezzani is also very touching and you can tell this book being published was cathartic for this writing duo. This is one of those books I cannot believe exists, but I am more than thrilled it does.
It’s a genuine shame Milestone was shut down, because this company was the single most ahead of its time comic company ever. Love this book, and would recommend it to anyone who can stomach the material. This needs to be reprinted in a collected edition ASAP. You could honestly print the Hardware issues and these into a trade, and have a pretty incredible 10 issue story about Dakota’s version of the Punisher.
A spinoff following his appearance in Hardware Man in the Machine, Deathwish goes about telling a story not even seen in many comics nowadays let alone the mid 90’s when this was written: A love story between a lesbian transgender couple written by two trans writers before their own transitions. It’s kind of insane how ahead of its time and personal this book is.
It follows Marissa Rahm, a trans police detective who has recently transitioned female, who is pursuing the serial killer Boots, a serial killer who targets transgenders and kills them in fucked up recreations of famous artwork. Enter Deathwish, a Punisher-like character who targets sex criminals, teaming up with Marissa in a way to take down Boots once and for all. And yes this series is “Mature Readers Only” as you can tell by the summary, making it one of three Milestone series to be rated that along with Xombi & Wise Son: The White Wolf.
Deathwish had previously appeared in three issues of Hardware (#5-7) in the character’s first collected edition and would go on to appear in three more issues (#26-28) as that series went on. This is what Deathwish was up to in between his Hardware appearances. If you also want to read more on this character, the 6 issues of Hardware listed above are his only other appearances.
How does it hold up today? Amazingly. This book is, as I said before, mad ahead of its time, with art that is incredibly rendered by the now well-known artists of J.H. Williams III & Jimmy Palmiotti, while written by Maddie Blaustein & Yves Fezzani before they both transitioned female, making this tale clearly personal for them. Blaustein handled the dialogue while Fezzani plotted the story itself out. I would say don’t read this if sexual assault or rape upsets you because Deathwish’s backstory is basically just the Punisher’s except his family is raped in front of him as well as killed. So yeah, it can be very hard to read and stomach, but if you can get past that though, there’s a solid story here.
Shakespearian sonnets are used at the beginning and end of each issue to parallel events going on in the story. The story itself is extremely engaging, with a fucking tragic love story at its center that hit me right in the feels the entire time, but especially by the end. Oh man. that ending was an absolute gut punch. The ending letter by Yves Fezzani is also very touching and you can tell this book being published was cathartic for this writing duo. This is one of those books I cannot believe exists, but I am more than thrilled it does.
It’s a genuine shame Milestone was shut down, because this company was the single most ahead of its time comic company ever. Love this book, and would recommend it to anyone who can stomach the material. This needs to be reprinted in a collected edition ASAP. You could honestly print the Hardware issues and these into a trade, and have a pretty incredible 10 issue story about Dakota’s version of the Punisher.
March 7, 2024
Wish Maddie Blaustein was still with us, creating <3 I hope Yves Fezzani is well and safe or at peace <3
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December 1, 2025Miniserie del personaje epónimo.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews