Originally published on Patreon
In the third issue of this DC vs Vampires spin-off our team of heroes and villains finally reach their destination and put their plan to save the world into action; but get given a side-mission along the way from an unexpected new ally.
The change in location to the Florida swamps is a nice shift, and gives this issue a look that feels a bit different to what we've had in the first issue. We also get a startling shot that shows us that the swamp has become a giant farm where Swamp Thing has been turned into a farm for food to feed those trapped in the blood farm. Soylent Green is Swamp Thing I guess. It's pretty creepy, even for this series.
Not long into their time in Florida the team are saved from a vampire attack by Batwoman, who dispatches a number of vampires; though is one herself. Slade and the group go to kill her, but she convinces them that she's okay, and was sent there by Damian. Not entirely trusting her, they do agree to help her to rescue Starfire; who's being held near to the blood farms.
The team splits up, with some going with Batwoman to break out the alien princess, whilst the others carry on with the original plan. And the rest of the issue mostly follows the Starfire side of the mission, with the other part probably being the focus next time.
Starfire is being held under the control of Baron Cinder (more on him in a bit), and the team have to fight through hordes of vampires to get to her. Whilst they do manage to rescue her, and she leaves with Batwoman to go do whatever Damian has in mind, Bane ends up being killed in the process; losing one of the team's stronger fighters.
This issue is okay, it's not the best entry in the DC vs Vampires canon, but it's still pretty entertaining. The action is decent enough, and it seems to be putting things into place for later plans by going in and taking out Starfire; but on the whole there's nothing here that really stands out. The characters don't really have anything about them that jumps out (other than Mary being a delight), and some of the interactions feel a bit weird. I understand that this is almost a year into the vampire apocalypse, and old relationships have changed; but I don't get why Slade and Kory are so chummy, especially as Starfire has been a prisoner of the vampires since day one. It just felt kind of off.
Now, Baron Cinder. This is a new character to the series, or a reinvention of an existing one at least. We know he's wearing Lex Luthor's suit, but can't be Lex because he died. His head is on fire, but it's not Firestorm. This issue claims that he's powered by solar radiation, which hints at this being a Kryptonian. So, I'm leaning towards this being Superman. He got badly hurt in a previous issue, which could explained the bald, scarred head, and perhaps vampirisim and being hurt by sunlight, yet being Kryptonian and being powered by sunlight is having this weird effect on him that's causing him to burn constantly. Plus, him being in Lex's suit would kind of be poetic in a way. I'm just spit-balling, but that#s what I think we may learn by the end of the series anyway.
The art, Pasquale Qualano, and Nicola Right, looks great as usual, the black and white art with splashes of red throw in looks really good, especially with things like the flowing red hair of Batwoman. The art on this series has always been nice, and the particular style it chooses works really well at making a darker, more oppressive atmosphere, yet never feeling too muddy or murky that you get lost as to what's happening.
The back-up feature gives us the second part of 'Dark Birth', which tells the story of how Nightwing becomes the vampire king. Having walked into the headquarters of a group of vampires, this month he's having to fight for his life to escape. Of course, it's absolutely hopeless as he's outnumbered by a ridiculous degree, and even not knowing how this ends it'd look like a no-win situation. The worst part of it, for me, is as dozens of vampires swarm over him and he knows he's about to die, the last thing he thinks about is 'Who'd feed Haley in the morning?'.
This honestly made me feel really sad, and brought a tear to my eye. In his final moment Dick didn't think about what would happen to him, didn't think about how he could have done something different, he thought about his sweet, innocent little puppy and if she'd be okay. This speaks to how kind a person he is, and perhaps this depth of kindness is why he fell so far when he became a vampire; all that goodness twisting into evil.
Haining's artwork is decent enough, and looks similar to the main story by being black and white with flashes of red, but does look different enough to stand out. It has a very manga-like quality to it, and Dick is a very pretty looking boy in this story. It is odd seeing DC embracing manga art, but as a small side-story it's okay.
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