Part of an ongoing series revisiting graphic novels and collected editions from days gone by....

DC Comics has probably been looking for a good way to overrun the DC Universe with the ravenous undead ever since Marvel Comics did it (successfully, I might add) in 2006's Marvel Zombies. Now, two decades later, we have our answer, and it's a good one: DCeased.

Tom Taylor, the writer responsible for DC's popular Injustice: Gods Among Us series of books (based on a video game), is also at the helm for DCeased. Trevor Hairsine is the book's primary artist, although the credits list seven additional pencillers and inkers for this book.

It begins dramatically, with Superman shattering the alien god Darkseid's jaw as the Justice League prevents yet another invasion by the forces of Apokalips. Darkseid retreats to his home planet, but not without kidnapping the hero Cyborg, whose body holds half of the Anti-Life Equation that Darkseid has sought to end free will in the universe. With the other half of the equation already in hand, Darkseid initiates his evil plan ... but is quickly overwhelmed by it himself and destroys Apokalips in moments. Unfortunately for the planet Earth, Darkseid's right-hand man, Desaad, tries to stave off oblivion by sending Cyborg home ... which doesn't save Apokalips, but does bring the infection to another world.

And on Earth, the infection spreads quickly, through the internet and digital devices. In seconds, some 600,000,000 people have succumbed. But it doesn't kill them, oh no, it turns them into rampaging zombies, and the infection also spreads through bites and other blood contact.

Heroes quickly are overwhelmed, and readers will be surprised how quickly some of DC's big names are taken out of the story. And yes, I know it's just a comic book, but some of these pages are heartbreaking to a longtime fan.

The book quickly explores the heroic response, with even some villains joining in the fight to save the world from annihilation. There are victories and losses, and noble sacrifices galore. But will it be enough?

DCeased is powerful and dramatic, and the art is appropriately intense, highly detailed and horrifically gory. Don't try to guess who lives and who dies, because some of the answers will surprise you.

This book collects the original six-issue run of DCeased along with the one-shot DCeased: A Good Day to Die. There's more to come: two spinoff books, DCeased: Unkillables and DCeased: Hope at World's End, and two sequel collections, DCeased: Dead Planet and DCeased: War of the Undead Gods. However, anyone interested in sampling the story without committing to so many books can read this initial collection without needed to read further, unless they so choose. I mean, sure, it ends on something of a cliffhanger, but....