Behaviour Interactive has been killing the horror genre of multiplayer gaming—more so, figuratively. But literally in terms of the popularity! Their Dead By Daylight has only got better with time and more collaborations with well-known horror franchises such as Evil Dead, Scream, Silent Hill, Saw and much more. However, Dead By Daylight #1 takes the reader into one of the game’s beloved and much-used killer(s), The Legion.
As a quick recap, The Legion is technically classified as one killer comprised of four teenagers: Frank Morrison, Julie Kostenko, Susie Lavoie and Joey. While the player playing The Legion technically only controls one person, it is actually all of them working together as a ragtag band of brutal killers who dish out mortal wounds to their prey.
Frank has been known to be The Legion’s mascot, as he was the one who inserted himself into the trio of friends who have known the small, uneventful Canadian town of Ormond their whole lives. His iconic mask has been compared to The Purge movies’ masks, the ones from The Strangers, or even the ones from the Payday games…just with fewer colours. Frank was very Charles Manson-like with his charisma stats, leading the rest of the group down a dark path with him—and they were raging teenagers from the 90’s who just wanted to do whatever they wanted.
Nadia Shammas’ Dead By Daylight #1 built upon the lore established in the games through countless text and “memories”, and brought it from screen-to-page just as best as I could have imagined it. This first issue immediately began with a random murder that occurred as Frank travels to Ormond by train. Frank witnessed the murder happen right before his eyes. The killer was wearing the classic mask, and switchblade (with a smiley face on the handle, an homage to the Smiley Face Pin from the game) as their murder weapon.
The killer looked at Frank and handed him the blade, with a smartly drawn tie-in to The Entity tease that players of the game would recognize. After blacking out from seeing that, Frank went on to meet his new foster parent and immediately grew warm with the other members of The Legion: Julie, Susie and Joey.
“Nadia Shammas’ Dead By Daylight #1 built upon the lore established in the games through countless text and “memories”, and brought it from screen-to-page just as best as I could have imagined it.”
The first interaction with Frank and Julie outside the Ormond high school was almost as it was described in one of Julie’s memories in Dead By Daylight—Tome 3: Escalation Memory 471 to Memory 480 aka “Soldiers of Mayhem.” Truly a love at first sight moment, with a side of teenage angst. The general story in this issue moved fairly quickly to build up Frank meeting the group and showing off his sly charms on the three new friends. The teenage debauchery and wickedness were quite believable for these rebellious adolescents who felt that the world did not see them.
I thought the writing of Frank was quite intelligent with how he has been bounced around the foster system, and how he was always trying to leave his mark wherever he went. It almost convinced me he was someone to pity, until I remembered how many times I played The Legion killer in the game. The Legion is an easy killer to learn, and dishes out some ridiculous damage to the survivors.
The illustrations by Dillon Snook really tied this anarchistic issue together with some creative use of artwork and specific uses of each panel type. It was cool to see that when a murder was happening, it truly felt bloody on the page. Then, when the young teens go on their little nighttime outing of disturbances, I loved how the damages they inflict were also drawn outside of the panels. It was like they were constantly breaking through the boundaries of the pages themselves.
While I found the story a bit cheesy, the evil roots were already planted from the Dead By Daylight game. This was merely an origin expansion tale. As a prequel to the game, I really enjoyed Dead By Daylight #1 for its ability to give us more depth to The Legion killer. It really shows the careful thought behind each of the backstories of these original killers from the game. The cover art was dreadfully impressive; it was a great respect to the game and how the story will be progressing in the later issues.
I cannot wait to read the next issue for The Legion, and hopefully Titan Comics will be able to bring the other killers to its pages as well. As a bonus, readers can also unlock an exclusive in-game charm found within the comic—another incentive for those who love the game!
