While “superhero” is considered a genre unto itself by many, you can tell many kinds of stories while working inside it. Science fiction, high fantasy, crime noir, and beyond — some of the best superhero sagas integrate elements of other genres into their framework.

Originally published as a three-issue, prestige format limited series and collected in trade paperback this week, Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love takes its titular superhero —a body-hopping ghost otherwise named Boston Brand—and throws him in the middle of a spooky gothic romance. The result? A strong, standalone work of superhero fiction that barely resembles many other works of its ilk.

Without getting into specifics, Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love tells the tale of Berenice, a gifted young woman who, upon moving into a sparse mansion in the middle of nowhere with her fiance, meets Deadman — himself compelled to the mansion when he intercepts the distress call of a spirit named Adelia. It doesn’t take long for things to get frightening and supernatural.

Having previously written in the romance genre with her creator-owned work Alex + Ada, writer Sarah Vaughn swaps that title’s science fiction trappings for gothic horror here, using Deadman as our trojan horse into this series.

While he’s certainly a major player throughout, I’d struggle to call Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love a Deadman story; instead, it’s a story that Deadman happens to feature in. And that’s not a criticism in the slightest — Deadman’s secondary status to Berenice (our actual protagonist) may even be one of Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love’s biggest strengths. You can easily imagine a version of this story that doesn’t even feature Deadman, but a prior understanding of the character certainly doesn’t hurt the reading experience.

Because of how detached it is from the larger DC Universe (and especially the DC Rebirth branding), I’d heartily recommend Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love to people who don’t consider themselves fans of the superheroes, and especially those who like spooky gothic fare and ghost stories. It’s definitely more Turn of The Screw than Justice League, that’s for sure.

Genre aside, Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love is refreshingly modern and forward-thinking in ways that might seem otherwise insignificant. At one point in the story, for example, Berenice talks plainly about her friend (and love interest) Sam’s non-binary gender identity, which Boston quickly accepts without judgement. Adelia, as well, is treated sympathetically, and it quickly becomes clear that she’s not our antagonist. Comparatively small things, sure, but they add to the narrative instead of distracting from it.

Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love is very reminiscent of Mike Grell’s 1987 series Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters — not because they’re thematically similar (they’re aren’t) but rather, because they’re both pencil-drawn comics originally published in prestige format.

Drawn by Lan Medina and colored by José Villarrubia, their illustrations have a soft, sketchy quality to them that defined much of Grell’s most notable works, which fits the tone of Vaughn’s script perfectly. Aesthetically speaking, it’s quite different that what you’ll see in DC’s mainline books, and further proves that tonal diversity is important at the Big Two.

Letterer Janice Chiang turns in some great lettering work as well, conveying Vaughn’s script clearly while applying distinctive touches to dialogue and narration. Berenice’s narration boxes are rendered in pale blue, for example, while Deadman’s narration is boxed in red, and his white dialogue bubbles are outlined in red strokes. When the story takes a scary turn, a foreboding presence black dialogue bubbles match the tone of their dialogue. Thoughtful lettering always deserves a mention, and Chiang’s contributions to the story add a lot to the whole package.

The Verdict
Buy it! Whether or not you’re a fan of its titular superhero, Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love offers a spooky Gothic romance that will delight fans of the genre, as well as Deadman himself.

Welcome to the world of the Deadman, AKA Boston Brand. Sarah Vaughn has created a rich and interesting world in Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love.

Vaughn's characters are so interesting. They aren't your normal "heroes". They are quirky and endearing, which is what makes them so engaging. When you are outside what's considered normal, is it a gift or a curse? Vaughn explores this question, and more, in the Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love.

The art in this book is beautiful. Vaughn weaves all of the elements of a classic Gothic romance into a modern world. If you're not careful, you'll be up past your bedtime to read in a single sitting!

A gothic horror romance starring Deadman? Think about it. A match made in Nanda Parbat, right? Shockingly, no. Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love mostly focuses around Berenice, a woman who is sensitive to, and can observe, ghosts, with Deadman underwhelmingly being used as a plot contrivance. Writer Sarah Vaughn provides a standard offering to the genre: murder, lost love, unrecounted love (inexplicably gay love at that; a plot element tacked on seemingly to satisfy a quota and never explored or explained), and the unsurprising return of a dastardly villain steeped in the dark arts.

As for the art? Lan Medina showcases slick, detailed visuals that, when paired with digital painter Jose Villarrubia, transcends the typical graphic novel medium, look more akin to storybook art than superhero. Berenice is rendered as a normal, standard woman that definitely, and refreshingly, stands in contrast to the super-human existence of Boston Brand.

The art also contrasts against the staggering commonness of the story itself. Vaughn and Medina work together to produce a few genuinely creepy moments, but those are quickly forgotten and generally dulled down by a slow-moving plot complete with meaningless internal dialogue that would certainly have Frank Miller screaming at the walls of his studio in frustration. If anything, Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love shows that nothing is scarier than longing looks at an antique store.

Right.

Thanks to DC Comics and NetGalley for the ghost of a chance to read the advanced collector’s edition. This is a genre ripe for the taking in the magical DCU; it just needs to be properly grabbed.

Totally loved this. I never read any DC comics before and I never heard of Deadman, so this comic totally blew me away. I love the graphic and the coloring, they are so vibrant and vivid. I also really love the story, it's very intriguing and even though I already guessed how the story will go, I still really enjoyed to see how it all unfolded. Another thing I enjoyed is there are a lot of rep in this story, especially of non-binary character because it's the first time I ever read about one and it explains the term so much (I read about it before, but I was confused of the meaning). Can't wait to read the next installments!

I was given a copy of this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review.
Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love did not fail to impress. I enjoyed the diversity of the characters. The backstories revealed small pieces about the main character as the story progressed. This was accomplished by using flashbacks or memories. I don't feel that these hindered or slowed the story in any way. They were definitely necessary to explain present choices the characters were making. It is hard to describe the basic plot and about the characters without giving away spoilers due to them being do deeply dependent and intertwined together. With that said, I will do my best to at least try to describe some of it.
The main character (living) is sensitive to supernatural phenomenon however, she doesn't want to reveal this to her author boyfriend. They move into a mansion that the boyfriend inherited from a late uncle. Things are somewhat quiet and peaceful for the main character until she sees a dark shadow. When the shadow appears, so then does Deadman. As things start to take off, there is another entity added to the mix as the main character sees a woman screaming. She is still trying to keep her abilities hidden from her boyfriend and new friend from town. It is at this point that I can't describe too much more as it will give away too much of the story. All I can say is it is a great read. I liked the way it progressed. It kept my attention and the author of this novel was not in any way afraid to push the envelope.

Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love is another retelling of Bluebeard where a man and a woman go to some big house, the man turns out to be crazy and the woman runs away from him. Other famous versions include Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. What does Deadman/Boston Brand have to do with it? Nothing really. And that’s the book!

Ugh, awful. I’d hoped Alex + Ada co-writer Sarah Vaughn’s story, with the inclusion of deceased superhero Deadman, would be good in an offbeat way but it’s just a standard gothic romance. What’s worse is that Vaughn appears to be a Social Justice Warrior who’s infused the book with her regressive left politics. A female character, Sam, claims to be non-binary - that is, neither male nor female - and uses they/them pronouns. Oh. Fuck. No. Gawd. And, per that toxic ideology, the villain is a straight white male - the worst thing imaginable! Deadman gets a pass I guess because DC didn’t want their character shit on - while the heroes are a woman and a gay “non-binary” black woman, aka the best thing imaginable!

I’ll try to keep my political rant as short as possible: I can’t stand the absurdly PC gobshite that’s infected liberals today. I don’t care if you want to be called male, female, or if you’re a hermaphrodite, but there’s no such thing as non-binary. It’s fucking stupid. You’re one of those things. To call yourself “non-binary” is preposterous, pretentious and nonsensical, not to mention ungrammatical!

DC: please don’t pander to the SJWs, they are CANCER. Look what happened to Marvel when they did - their sales have been in the toilet for over a year! Comics Alliance went full SJW and it’s now dead. Everyday Feminism is going under as we speak. The Guardian is literally begging people to support its leftist propaganda machine when you visit their website. The Labour party in the UK and the Democrat party in the US are in freefall after siding with these extremists. Bottom line: these idiots poison everything they touch. I guarantee you also they make up a miniscule percentage of the comics reading audience; they won’t support you financially and they’re NEVER happy with anybody’s efforts to try to placate/accommodate them. Like Flat Earthers and other uneducated anti-intellectuals, it’s best to just ignore them. They’ll be gone soon enough while the actual fans reading this, and other DC books, who’re just looking for an entertaining story, will still be there.

Even without the politics though, Dark Mansion would still be a crappy comic. It’s an unoriginal, cliche-ridden romance with an obvious (as well as confusing and contrived - I guess Berenice is bi or secretly gay even though that’s never established?) love triangle and unexciting “mystery” at its core; Deadman is an incidental and, at best, supporting character despite the book being supposedly starring him; and the whole thing reads like a half-baked episode of Scooby-Doo. It’s such a boring read.

The art team do an outstanding job though. Lan Medina, Phil Hester and Jose Villarrubia have produced a gorgeous book and every page was a stunner - shame that it was all in service to Sarah Vaughn’s garbage script.

I was disappointed because this looked like a really fun book. I liked and appreciated that DC were doing something unusual with one of their lesser-known characters so it’s a shame that it turned out the way that it did. Dull, uninspired, deeply generic and unfortunately tainted with regressive politics, Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Pants ain’t worth it.

An interesting concept which in many ways reminded me of Crimson Peak!
Intrigued to see if the Deadman's history will be explored and explain why he himself is lingering too!

Solid story, with an LGBT positive spin, and a fun ghost story. Great artwork too!

I tried getting into but I just couldn't do it. It was an interesting concept but I just couldn't get into the writing of the story. The artwork was okay. I was into it on the cover but the more I saw it in the comic I realized I didn't enjoy the style. I'm sad to say I didn't enjoy this. I really wanted to but certain things kept me from enjoying it.

This was my first time picking up a Deadman book (I'd only seen him previously in Justice League Dark) and I really enjoyed it. Though a fairly run-of-the-mill ghost story (the plot reminded me a lot of Corpse Bride) the characters were well-fleshed out and interesting and it was cool to see Boston's powers in full force. Definitely will want to pick up more Deadman in the future if other books are anything like this.

Decades ago, after a diet of colourful but surface-only characters like Batman and Superman, as they were then, I had the good fortune to read the first appearance of Deadman - the deepest of comic book characters despite having no material being.

Ever since, Deadman is one of a handful of characters (Swamp Thing is another) who grabs my attention whenever there is a resurfacing.

This book features a welcome return, but into a crowded context where the essence of Deadman is diluted. Into what could easily be the cliched context of a haunted house story, Sarah Vaughn introduces a very atypical cast of the half-living dead, the dead but not departed, the non-binary, as well as the brave heroine and distant boyfriend.

Unfortunately, Deadman is frequently a bystander rather than an essential part of the action. Now that he's back on comic covers and DC is surging in terms of public attention, this graphic novel may be the launching pad for a truly Deadman-centred future series.

This is an interesting graphic novel and a good story. I enjoyed reading it. Berenice is staying in Glencourt House with her boyfriend Nathan. The huge house is full of antiques and ghosts and a deep, dark malevolence. Nathan doesn't see the ghosts but Berenice does. She sees them and she can converse with them but she doesn't tell anyone about this because doing so in the past has cost her a relationship.

Berenice also feels the malevolent atmosphere of the house, but even though she hides her gifts, Berenice makes an effort to speak to the ghosts one of whom is a deeply troubled woman, and the other is Deadman.

Deadman helps dead people and he only entered the house because he felt it's pain and the pain of the mysterious female ghost. Now he is stuck in the house and he can't leave. When he realises Berenice can see him he works with her to solve the mystery of the house, free himself and the other ghost and fight off the dark spirit that seems to have invaded the house.

And as Berenice and Deadman work together to solve things the mystery of the house begin to unfold and it is darker and more dangerous than either Deadman or Berenice could have envisaged.

This was a good story with good art. The colouring was a bit dark but it is a dark story with a fabulous gothic feel.

Copy of provided by Riptide in exchange for an unbiased review.

I started reading this book and I just could not get into it at all. I had to stop

I was given this book as a review copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This may contain mild spoilers.

This is a tentative 3 star graphic novel for me.

The positives about this novel are the art (obviously) and the basic story.
I enjoyed this as a quick, pretty, ghost story.

The negative aspects of this graphic novel are as follows:

1. The Characters
Berenice is quite boring. She's nice enough, but I'm not attached to her. Nathan is boring till the end of the novel. Boston is a character that I've never read about before and I can't say I'm dying to again. He could be fantastic in other works, but from what I've seen he's just a bland, ghost, hero. Adelia was fine. Just your typical confused ghost.

Now let's talk about Sam. Just to be petty, I'll be ranting a bit. I'm kind of disappointed in the artistic portrayal of Sam. They are supposed to be non-binary, but Sam was drawn overly masculine to the point where I just thought he was male. I have no idea how Boston mistook them for female before Berenice explained their gender identity. That's just a minor thing to pick at.
Continuing on to the main point: Sam represents one of the most annoying tropes that I see in various works of fiction all the damn time. They represent having a character that is somehow diverse, without any other noticeable features or backstory. This is not enough. I hate it when a character is gay, black, or transgender and that's their whole personality. It's a lazy trope, especially when you have a character like Sam who isn't even a side character. Honestly, as a bisexual woman, I just don't care. I wish fiction(and I suppose the world) could just move past labels that people can't control and don't chose about themselves. It's stupid to continue proudly flaunting a label instead of actually being an interesting person.

2. Being Forgettable
Works of fiction can move and inspire people in ways that one may not even understand. You know a story is special when you keep thinking about it over and over again. A story can say something about life, philosophy, or society. This is not one of those works of fiction.
It was a fun book. That's it. The art was lovely to look at, but the story just wasn't that memorable to me.
A ghost trying to find her murderer as she's trapped in the mansion where she was killed.
I've heard many versions of that tale.

That's all I have to say on the matter.

Harley

This ended up not quite being what I was expecting, and it was weird in a way that I think only comic books can be. As I was lost over pretty much everything dealing with Boston, I'm fairly certain that there was more before this collection that would have explained things for me. The story itself was interesting with a nice twist at the end, but overall I didn't really get into it all that much. It was just so darn corny. And I really didn't like the whole relationship flip flop thing going on. I'm not cool with people in a relationship leading another on and then ending up together with them at the end of the story. Also, why did a guy what to be considered a "they"??? Was this more PC writing being thrown in my face?

What really drew me to this read was the name. I've never heard of Darkman, and the Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love just sounds so strange. I love it. The story started out a little slow for me, but once I got into it, I couldn't put it down.

I gave it three stars although I only made it about 50pages in and then gave up. The art work is amazing, but the story was a little slow. the main reason I gave up, was because the only format available was the pdf which I couldn't access on my ipad. It made the entire reading experience too tedious and frustrating, not to mention veeeeeery slow. Maybe consider making it available to download onto kindle which can then be accessed on a tablet through the app. It was close to impossible to read it in the pdf format. Sorry, I tried. I think if the story had kept my attention a little more, I may have put up with the annoyance of the reading experience.

A cool art style and story line in this graphic novel.