DC Vs. Vampires: All-Out War #1 – Matthew Rosenberg/Alex Paknadel, Writers; Pasquale Qualano, Artist; Guillaume Singelin, Backup Writer/Artist
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: In a similar way to Future State: Gotham, DC is spinning out the DC vs. Vampires franchise with this black-and-white side book. Or rather, black, white, and red—because you can’t have vampires without blood. Alex Paknadel jumps on to help Matt Rosenberg on writing duty, and focuses his story on the messy weirdos of the survivors. Slade Wilson is leading a ragtag group of renegades including Damage and Blue Devil as they seek out the last remaining Lazarus Pit with the intention of resurrecting Batman to unite the resistance. But a chance encounter with a vampirized, insane Azrael reveals something even more shocking. The Lazarus Pit can reverse the vampire plague—but it’s only one use per pit.
This issue introduces another new refuge for the heroes, powered by Captain Atom to keep the sun shining 24-7 and populated by survivors we haven’t seen yet like Terra and Mary Marvel. It seems like a little slice of utopia—and Slade is planning to turn it into his ideal city. Of course, the good times can’t last, and it’s not long before the Vampire empire starts making inroads. Overall, this is a good start and the horror scenes are effective, although most of the characters feel fairly disposable so far. The story is at its best when it’s keeping us in suspense about who can be trusted, and there are several great fight scenes and jump scares in here that remind me of what makes the main series so good.
Then there’s the backup by Guillaume Singelin, as Batgirl takes the fight to Commissioner Gordon and the rest of the vampire GCPD—who we just saw get vampirized in a one-shot a few weeks ago. There isn’t much meat to this story, as it’s mostly one big fight scene, but it looks spectacular with a few good punches of emotion towards the end. I’m not sure if there are future backups as well, but it’ll be interesting to see which creative teams get tapped to add their own unique flourish to this story.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
