Reviews

The Dead Lucky Vol. 1: The Good Die Young by Melissa Flores

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novelerachavela's review

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

lukewhenderson's review

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

melniksuzuki's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

3.5*s

Never have I read a debut graphic novel that has so many fantastic elements from the get-go.

A story of fighting for your home and loved ones while battling your inner ghosts and trauma. Dead lucky feels not quite dystopian but more similar to a Black Mirror episode where corporations use technology to 'help and enable' our lives to be better with disastrous consequences. I enjoyed how evenly everything was explored from our protagonist's trauma and PTSD to Morrow's plan for San Fran and the rest of the USA.

If anyone is a fan of sci-fi you HAVE to read this. The colours are fantastic, the characters are all well-explored and you're instantly thrown into action.

ratgrrrl's review

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I really don't know how I feel about this one.

There's a lot of good, bad, and, just, huh? to this comic.

There's a lot to love about a Queer neurodivergent Chinese-Mexican American femme with electric ghost powers, cool suit and mechs, clearly influenced by the Power Rangers, which at least one of the creators previously worked on. I mean, unless you're someone who appropriates 'woke' as a pejorative. There are even recipes for things from Bibi's parents' Chinese-Mexican-American BBQ fusion restaurant in the back! An awesome touch.

A veteran dealing with PTSD that isn't oohra! and is treated respectfully by the story is great, though how the PTSD is shown, not shown, and how therapy is discussed is less great. Bibi's symptoms mostly comprise of seeing lightning ghosts of her dead squad mates and talking out loud to herself/ the ghosts/ the reader? It's used as an effective narrative device, as is a variety of thought, speech, and text bubbles in various places, at times like enjambment. However, it does seem to be played a little too much as a novelty, joke, meta-textual reference to fourth-wall breaking characters like Deadpool. Representation matters and, while this isn't perfect, it could be a whole lot worse, which, sadly, is what neurodivergent people have had to put up with. For reference, I have C-PTSD myself.

The art is pretty great and has some of its own style with a lot of influences. I'll be honest, I've read so many comics now that I kinda find it hard to judge comic art beyond the exceptional and bog standard. This is closer to the latter, but with enough of its own character.

The script is also pretty great as far as dialogue and characterisation goes. I don't feel a particular emotional connection to any of the characters, San Francisco, or the cookie cutter evil megacorp, but I was ready to be very angry and may have sworn loudly at a fake out a few pages before the end, so that's something.

Where the story falls down, however, is that the terms, players, and stakes are very unclear. This isn't in a grey, who are the 'good folx', really? kind of way. It's more, so why is the megacorp doing this in the first place? How do they relate to the local government? What is going on in the rest of the State, country, world? Are the gang/ domestic terrorists good, bad, or grey? Where do the mercs and weapons dealers fit in? Where do Bibi's powers come from? What actually happened during her last tour? Why do some become her electric ghosts and others not? Is she still doing therapy? What actually is the message here?

That's a lot of questions. Some are referenced, hinted at, inferred, brushed up against, snd/ or completely ignored more than others, but I just don't know what this really is doing or really wants to do. It seems like it's trying to be a bit more rebellious, radical, and transgressive, but without actually taking any significant swings beyond representation (which, again, matters, but isn't enough for a cohesive story). I think in some ways, while the script and so much more I enjoyed Infinitely more than Spider-Punk: Banned in D.C, which I largely found unreadable, there's a lot here that is just aesthetics covering up superhero business as usual, which is a shame.

Ultimately, I don't know if I care enough to wait and see if I get some or these answers. I don't know if I will read volume 2 when it's out. There are just some many comics out there that are actually being transgressive and radical in their storytelling and what they are putting across. We love to see cool characters, creators, and diversity in and on comics, which is something I absolutely support. I just don't know if this is the character or story for me.