Originally published on Patreon
Our band of brave heroes finally enter Gotham City in the latest issue of DC Vs Vampires, as the war with King Dick comes closer to finally coming to a close.
There are a couple of different things going on this issue, and I'm going to talk about them out of order just so that they're a little easier to go through. In Australia, Steel drags Kara onto the shore after their big fight at sea with Aquaman and the Atlanteans. Kara isn't breathing, so Steel tries to revive her, and ends up with Jayna pouring out of the Kryptonian in liquid form. Turns out that when she turned into a water bear last issue and Aquaman ripped her apart she did it so that she could enter Kara's lungs when she was knocked into the water, providing her with oxygen to keep her alive and preventing her from drowning. It's a bit gross, but whatever keeps them all alive I guess. After this, the three of them trek across the desert until they find the spaceship they've been hoping will get Kara above the clouds and into the sun to re-power.
In Smallville, Ollie is given the opportunity to join the vampires as a human ambassador, with Hawkman wanting him to use his natural leadership abilities to convince the other heroes to step down and to give in to the vampire nation. Of course, Ollie tells him to shove it, and ends up in the camp with the other prisoners. This led to one of the most fun parts of the book, as he outs a seed out of a hidden necklace, and pees on it, even encouraging Grifter to join in to help water it. Grifter has a go at the super hero, moaning about how regular folks are just left to watch these powered people's pissing contests (Ollie reminds him he invited him to join actually), and the seed grows into Swamp Thing, who tells Oliver that they will never speak of this again. Sneaking Swampy into the camp like this is a pretty genius move, and the conversations that are had in this scene are genuinely funny and delightful. And I'm absolutely looking forward to seeing Swampy use his powers to stake vamps and tear them to pieces. Maybe he'll even grow Ollie a new bow too.
In Gotham, the team manages to infiltrate the city thanks to the help of Starfire (that tie in series is paying off now), and after a small delay where they get captured by Punchline until Damian secures their release, the gang head onto a Gotham rooftop where Barbara unveils a Bat Signal. Turning it on, several others appear across the city as her allies come into play. Why make big signals in the sky that will surely get you attacked? Well, not only does it send a big message, but the UV bulbs in them also turn the signals into giant vampire killing torches. War has come to Gotham, and Barbara is not messing around at all.
The final moments of this issue, with the signals appearing across the city and the vampires falling in droves is a pretty epic moment, and one that is signalling (no pun intended) that we've entered the latter stages of this story. There is only the fight now, only the last push, on three fronts. Will it work, will humanity be saved? With this series it's honestly impossible to know, but it does kind of feel like there's a bit of a chance now, and that hope going into the final stretch has been sorely needed.
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