Medical Bills Force A Master Thief Back Into Action: Dead Eyes #2

With his wife’s mounting medical bills, Martin Dobbs is forced back into the mask. The first step to financial solvency: getting his crew back together. Unfortunately, his wheelman makes a costly mistake and the job doesn’t go quite as planned. Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you money, right? (Contains previously published material.)

The publisher’s blurb sums Dead Eyes #2 up pretty well. As I mentioned in last month’s review, there’s no 401(k) or medical plan for retired criminals. Marin Dobbs’ wife has complex medical issues, and his back is up against a wall. There’s no way his minimum wage cover job is going to pay the bills. What’s a guy to do? I mean, he’s got a particular set of skills… Except, while the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak and many years out of practice. And that isn’t even Martin’s biggest problem.

This is a furiously paced chapter, heavy on the action. Even so, Gerry Duggan does a fair job developing our lead. There’s an interesting disconnect between Dobbs’ pragmatic worldview and the headspace he needs to get into to be a stone cold killer when the situation calls for it. He’ll have to convince himself he’s still got it, that he’s every inch the man he used to be, while simultaneously being fully aware that’s a steaming pile of manure. 

That gritty linework by John McCrea is back in play, and he gets to flex his action muscles in this chapter quite a bit. For the most part, the action sequences are well laid out and easy to track. There is one little spot, a body flying through the windshield from a full speed collision, where the inertia doesn’t quite translate to the page, but everything else is pretty fantastic. 
Color by Mike Spicer takes a turn in this chapter. The trash polka palette (deep blacks and greyscale with metered splashes of red) of flashback sequences and the dark shadows of nighttime scenes make way for broad daylight and harsh hospital flourescents.

If you were tracking Dead Rabbit before it got yanked from store shelves in a mandatory recall, Dead Eyes #2 is a refresher course. This is the same story that published back in November 2018 before legal issues with the name forced a repackage. Chapter three will be the first original Dead Eyes installment. Stay tuned.

Dead Eyes #2, Image Comics, released 06 November 2019. Written by Gerry Duggan, art by John McCrea, color by Mike Spicer, letters by Joe Sabino, edited by Will Dennis, covers by John McCrea and Tula Lotay, logo by Drew Gill.