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DV8
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Around the time that he was building the
foundation of his popular antihero team The Authority in the pages
of Stormwatch, writer Warren Ellis was also exploring the darker
side of "gen-active" teens in "DV8". |
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was something of a surprise that this book came from Image - it was the
exact opposite of their typical glitzy superhero book. The title was
initially billed as the "anti-Gen 13", and nothing could be more
accurate. These characters hate each other, use their powers to commit
murder, abuse their privileges, and generally think they're superior to
the rest of humanity. It's about as far from a mainstream
"costume" book as you can get, and it was admirable of the
publisher to let Ellis give readers his malicious and uncompromising view
of such a group.
Brought together by the deliciously amoral Ivana Baiul,
the group consisted of the heat-sucker Frostbite, the animalistic Evo, the
multiple-personality possessor Copycat, the brawny Powerhaus, the
density-altering Sublime, and the pain/pleasure controller Bliss. This
motley group of disruptive teens was led by the arrogant psionic
Threshold, with the utterly insane Sideways Bob acting as the team's
"keeper". The group was formed and funded by Ivana once she was
excised from International Operations to act as a "spoiler
force", snatching up various technology and items before other
intelligence agencies could get their hands on it, and then auctioning it
to the highest bidder. |
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| Ellis'
opening run on the title was relentlessly nihilistic. The characters at no
point seemed an amiable bunch, and with nary an altruistic gene among
them. But Ellis' sharp writing and strong characterization made me
interested to see if they'd discover a hint of humanity, a glimpse of
promise, within themselves. For example, in the second issue Ivana sends
them to investigate and possibly recruit a cult-like group of gen-active
teens. When the DV8 members realize these people (with names like Virginia
Dentata) are even more degenerate and twisted than themselves, they kill
the lot of them - which of course was precisely what Ivana wanted in the
first place.
The members slowly realize they exist to be manipulated.
As one character puts it, they're "like mushrooms, kept in the dark
and fed crap." But it was fascinating to see how they each coped with
their situation, particularly during "downtime". Sublime saves a
girl from committing suicide by breaking her leg, Bliss begins a
disturbing relationship with her brother Threshold, the ever-bored Evo
wanders the streets seeking drugs to distract him. Not your basic
"hero" behavior.
During his all-too-brief run, Ellis displayed his
trademark unpredictability while constantly treading the line between sick
humor and outright violence. And Humberto "Impulse"
Ramos' art on the book was, surprisingly, a fine fit. Normally a
cartoonish style, he managed to cast shadows in all the right places, and
never shied from gratuitous gore. I was especially fond of his females -
large, expressive eyes, broad shoulders, and big butt-stompin' feet. |
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| DV8 1
- Regular - 3.00 |
DV8 1
- Envy - 3.00 |
DV8 1
- Gluttony - 3.00 |
DV8 1
- Greed - 3.00 |
DV8 1
- Lust - 3.00 |
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| DV8 1
- Pride - 3.00 |
DV8 1
- Sloth - 3.00 |
DV8 1
- Anger - 3.00 |
DV8 2
- 2.50 |
DV8 3
- 2.50 |
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| DV8 4
- 2.50 |
DV8 5
- 2.50 |
DV8 6
- 2.50 |
DV8 7
- 2.50 |
DV8 8
- 2.50 |
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| DV8 9
- 2.50 |
DV8 10
- 2.50 |
DV8 11
- 2.50 |
DV8 12
- 2.50 |
DV8 13
- 2.50 |
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| DV8 14
- 2.50 |
DV8 15
- 2.50 |
DV8 16
- 2.50 |
DV8 17
- 2.50 |
DV8 18
- 2.50 |
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| DV8 19
- 2.50 |
DV8 20
- 2.50 |
DV8 21
- 2.50 |
DV8 22
- 2.50 |
DV8 23
- 2.50 |
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| DV8 24
- 2.50 |
DV8 25
- 2.50 |
DV8 26
- 2.50 |
DV8 27
- 2.50 |
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