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Mild Mannered Reviews - DC vs. Vampires Comic Books

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DC vs. Vampires #1 [of 12]

Scheduled to arrive in stores: October 26, 2021
Cover date: December 2021

"DC vs. Vampires"

Writer: James Tynion IV and Matthew Rosenberg
Artist: Otto Schmidt
Cover: Otto Schmidt
Variant Covers: Francesco Mattina, Jorge Molina and Ejkure

Reviewed by: Craig Boehmer
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DC vs. Vampires #1 DC vs. Vampires #1 I, Vampire is making his way to the Hall of Justice. He is hit by a car and they discover he has no pulse. Green Lantern comes out to scrape him off the pavement. When inside he tells Hal and one of the Wonder Twins that the Queen of the Vampires is dead and the remaining Vampires in power don't want war with humanity, they want genocide. He then reveals that he tracked the killers to the Legion of Doom. Most of the Legion of Doom members were turned into vampires, except Luthor, who was kept as a torture toy. Luthor escapes and confronts I, Vampire, whom he quickly learns is an ally. Luthor gives him a sample of his blood and requests he strangle him to death. I, Vampire makes his way from there to the Hall of Justice. [That's as far as I'll go in this summary, I don't want to give away the cool story beats that remain in this issue.]

5Story - 5: Great story. I am not familiar with I, Vampire, but he seems like an interesting character. The idea of the Legion of Doom being turned to vampires is fantastically fun. And Luthor gets to be such a boss as the savior of humanity. Seriously, he is the best villain in the DC universe. Such an interesting character. I am interested to see why Ollie is teased on the first page, but the only other mention of him is that he has been missing for a few days.

2Art - 2: I'll give top marks for shifting the color palette to fit the scene. Bright and cheery for the Hall of Justice, blood red bleeding throughout the Legion of Doom and Vampire Queen scenes. But there are just too many poorly drawn bodies and faces. It pulls me out of the story and gives a negative impression of the story. Plus too much bleeding colors muffles the story beats, and causes confusion while reading. Because everything is shades of red, and the faces don't look quite right, it can be difficult to ascertain which characters are doing what. Case in point, Lex Luthor is a total boss in this issue, but he looks like garbage. Yes he has been tortured, but that is no excuse for poor art.

3Cover Art - 3: This cover is ok. The fighting poses of both Batman and Green Arrow are evocative. They tease of great battles within. But the vampires faces look... off. Kind of like little rat/gopher combinations. Now I can't unsee Batman and Green Arrow surrounded by rat/gophers, which to be honest is equally as terrifying as vampires. Maybe that should be the next DC Elseworlds title, "DC vs Rat-Gophers".

5Variant Cover Art - 5: This is a creepy, fantastic cover. It does a fantastic job of using the variant cover template from the DCeased universe but adapts it to the DC vs Vampires universe very nicely. I also love the subtle blood red bats flying along the bottom of Batman's chest.

4Variant Cover Art - 4: This is a fine and menacing image of Green Lantern, which is fitting because he is really the only Justice League member that features heavily in this issue. But in comparison to the beautiful Batman cover, it feels lack luster. The painted look is pulled off really well though.

2Variant Cover Art - 2: I do not like this art style. I like the concept of having Batman fighting a giant vampire bat with a wooden stake in one hand. But I do not like the color scheme, nor the long bat ears, nor the long trailing cape. I am just not the target audience for this cover.

Mild Mannered Reviews

2021

Note: Except for digital first releases, the month dates are from the issue covers, not the actual date when the comic went on sale.

January 2021 February 2021 March 2021 April 2021 May 2021 June 2021 July 2021 August 2021 September 2021 October 2021 November 2021 December 2021

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