Deadlocke #1 is a one-shot comic book from Dark Horse, written by Arvid Nelson (Rex Mundi), with art by Nick Stakal (Criminal Macabre: Cell Block 666), and a cover by Jock (Losers).

The one-shot is a tie-in to Christopher Krovatin’s Venomous, the Simon & Schuster young adult novel, currently in the works as a feature film.

The plot of this story’s parent novel revolves around Locke Vinetti, a high school junior, who is disenchanted and more than a little hostile. In fact, for years he’s had a lousy social life because of a problem he has with his anger–a force he calls “the venom.” Ever since he was eight years old and bit off a piece of a classmate’s nose, he’s been something of a loner. But all that is about to change when he goes out with his one friend, Randall, to meet some of Randall’s crew hanging out at Riverside Park. Because in addition to meeting his kindred spirit, Casey - who has his own problems with his own kind of venom – Locke meets the spikey blue fairy-haircut Goth girl of his dreams. And if their relationship is going to work, he knows he has to rid himself of the venom once and for all. Interspersed with comic book adventures of the fantasy anti-hero alter-ego Locke has invented for himself, Venomous is a fast-paced, funny, and ferocious read about one teenage boy’s struggle with his inner demons.

This tie-in comic is set on an evening of Locke’s life when he is attending a party with his new girlfriend, Renee. The party is an annual Weimar bash, filled with debauchery, booze, and bloody knuckles. Locke is a newcomer to this band of bored rich kids – a loner who usually prefers to escape into the world of his alter ego comic book creation, Deadlocke. Under the tutelage of the group’s charming but unpredictable ringleader Casey, Locke has learned to express his art, and his angst, in ways he never thought possible. As the violent energy of Deadlocke continues to storm up inside of him, Locke must learn to control his newfound strength at the risk of losing Renee, the darkly beautiful girl of his dreams. Determined to prove that Deadlocke’s rage will overpower Locke’s love, Casey provokes Locke in a brutal rooftop battle where their lives, and their souls, hang in the balance.

Arvid Nelson’s writing on this tale is, as always, excellent. Deadlocke is a rather different type of story from the ones that Nelson typically tackles, but he produces a brilliant script here, with some really natural sounding dialogue for the teenage characters in the story. It just goes to show what a fantastically talented and versatile writer Nelson really is, that he can deftly turn his hand to any genre he sees fit!

I am familiar with Nick Stakal’s artwork from his recent run on Steve Niles’ Criminal Macabre series (Criminal Macabre: Cell Block 666), and was incredibly impressed with his work then. I’m glad to see his artwork popping up again, because Stakal is an amazing artist! His artwork has a very dark look, with really thick inks, that puts me in mind of the art style of Kelley Jones. His style works really well on this title, and helps to blur the lines between the real world of Locke Vinetti, and the dark fantasy world of Deadlocke.

The story in this one-shot comic is a great, fun read, and serves as a fantastic taster of the novel from which it was born. I can’t help feeling though, that I was missing something by not reading the novel first, because while Nelson gives us a decent introduction to the characters, there is very little room in the 25 pages of story for him to do much character development etc. That’s not to say that you can’t enjoy this without reading Venomous, but I can imagine that for readers of the novel, this is going to be an even more thrilling read!

Essential reading for fans of Venomous, but still highly recommended for those who haven’t read the source material, as this self-contained story is brilliantly told and beautifully illustrated. It’s great to see crossover between the worlds of novel publishing and comic books, we need more projects like this!

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