DC vs. Vampires #3 [of 12]
Scheduled to arrive in stores: December 28, 2021
Cover date: February 2022
“Trust No One”
Writer: James Tynion IV and Matthew Rosenberg
Artist: Otto Schmidt
Cover: Otto Schmidt
Variant Covers: Francesco Mattina
Reviewed by: Craig Boehmer
The Justice League find the Falsh’s corpse on the beach. They mourn his passing and make plans to find his murderer. Hal leads the investigation, but Batman refuses to take part in it. Batgirl is then shown fighting a vampire, before getting saved by Nightwing. During the fight it’s revealed that the vampires were told not to engage with the Bat family. Afterwards we catch up with Batman investigating the sewers underneath the Hall of Justice. Jayna is there looking for the remains of her brother.
The story shifts to vampires hunting the Penguin, in an attempt to eliminate anyone Luthor may have contacted. Zatanna reveals herself to be a vampire too. On the beach where Barry died, Diana and Hal converse. She gets her lasso around him and he confesses to the murder, but then hypnotizes Diana into letting him infect her. Batman finds a small remain if Jayna’s brother and learns his bones were cut by light. Meanwhile Black Canary gets some blood sample from Damian and takes it to Green Arrow. Finally Hal and Diana convince the League that Batman murdered Barry.
Story – 4: I’m intrigued by this story. But as a Superman fan it’s been very disappointing. He’s barely been in it, and has done nothing. So far the story seems like it should have been called Batman Family vs DC characters who were turned into Vampires. That probably doesn’t roll of the tongue as nicely. It was cool seeing Batgirl and Nightwing together. But the highlights of the story were Damian and Black Canary fighting, and Batman uncovering what happened to the Wonder twin. That latter scene gave the issue a lot of emotional weight. Now I’m not a fan or really familiar with the Wonder Twins at all. But seeing her tear up and frantically search for her brothers remains…it nailed the emotional moment.
Art – 3: Batman doesn’t have a face on the first page, and it’s not even a distance shot. The panel depicting the Penguin tripping just looks poorly drawn. And then the last two pages they completely changed Superman’s face and included mutton chops! I didn’t know Elvis was cosplaying as Superman in this issue. I tend to screw in favour of the artist, and to be fair Otto Schmidt does a lot of great panels in this issue. His colours are appropriately moody or bright depending upon the needs of the story. But there are significant problems in some of the panels. Problems that you’d hope would not exist at this level.
Cover Art – 2: I dig the logo for DC vs Vampires. But this Wonder Woman is a mess. Her hair is crazy, which isn’t a negative necessarily, but it just compounds the awkward anatomy, weird pose, and poorly drawn face. I think the face and hair just look, terrible.
Variant Cover Art – 5: Superman Vampire…it looks great. The design includes essential elements for both Superman and vampires, and the coloring is fantastic.
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