What happens when super villains are fired for being bad at their jobs and try to integrate back into society? They become Deadweights, and the subjects of a new miniseries by Tyrone Finch and Sebastián Píriz.
The six-issue miniseries from Ahoy Comics will follow Cannonbulk and Bounder, two evil mutants trying to go straight.
“At its core, Deadweights is about friendship,” Finch said. “It’s the story of two people who have been relentlessly beaten, battered, tossed off of bridges and forced to live in hideouts with no electricity or plumbing. But somehow, the two of them have never given up on each other or their dreams. When you look past their costumes, battles and vows to subjugate the human race; they’re just a couple of guys looking to find a place for themselves in this crazy, mixed-up world.”
Imagine if the Blob and Avalanche tried to get real jobs:
Count Dingo and the Marauders are a team of misunderstood evil mutants bent on world domination, whose diabolical plans range from robbing local credit unions to unleashing a biological disaster that will rid the planet of all non-mutants. After Jerry “Cannonbulk” Patton and Clarence “Bounder” Barrett make a mistake that leads to another defeat at the hands of the mutant superhero team The Paladins, the two “deadweights” are unceremoniously dumped from the team. Realizing that they are not cut out for world conquest, Jerry and Clarence don pants and try to pursue ordinary lives—but going straight is not as easy as it seems. DEADWEIGHTS takes a hard look at what happens after the fight when the villains are tired of being villains, and the heroes aren’t as heroic as they want you to think.
“Jerry and Clarence are two guys you can’t help to feel bad for,” said Píriz. “The more you know them, the more you’ll root for them — but that’s the moment where Tyrone sends a curve ball to remind us that, just like in real life, things rarely are so simple as we’d like.”
Here’s a preview of some of Píriz’s work from the first issue:
Second Coming artist Richard Pace will draw a series of “mug shot” variant covers for the series, starting with this one:
Finch has written a few back-up stories for Ahoy, as well as the graphic novel Swine for Humanoids. In his day job, he’s a writer and producer for the BET show Average Joe. Píriz, meanwhile, was the artist for We Ride Titans at Vault and Exorcists Never Die at Mad Cave.
Look for the first issue on April 10.