sigh
Why do you keep doing this to me DC vs Vampires? Every time I think I should give up on you, you put in the bare minimum effort to keep this relationship going (Happy Valentine’s Week to our readers). And like a schmuck who doesn’t know any better, I choose to stay.
Oh yeah, I need to review DC vs Vampires: World War V: Darkness and Light #1 (yes, I will use the full title just to point out how absurd it is) to provide the necessary context for my feelings.
Firstly, the issue teases a perspective flip, i.e., we’ll see how the same story plays out from two different viewpoints like the DC All in Special. That is a blatant lie, as what we get are two different stories that occur back-to-back that are only connected because Guy Gardner interacts with both our protagonists (boy, I wonder if we are going to get a lot of Guy content this year).
This happens…once and it’s from a single perspectiveNow, is that really a problem? Don’t solicits lie all the time? Yes, they do, and usually I would not care…except this time I’m being charged more for it.
But I should get into what this one-shot is actually about.
Darkness
The first part is about Vampire Wonder Woman turning Harper Row into a vampire after being impressed by her pluckiness and acting as a sort of mentor/mother figure for her. And this is actually really well written, with Diana displaying the type of kindness and compassion towards Harper that her mainstream counterpart is usually known for… which becomes tougher when her charge becomes unwilling to continue her unlife. It goes a long way to humanize this Diana (oh, the irony) and makes her feel more than another Evil Wonder Woman (the most annoying character archetype to emerge over the last decade next to Evil Superman). Throughout this saga, there has been an attempt to show both sides have a point, so a story focusing on how the vampires behave might go a long way to make that happen. It doesn’t because the vampires have been the aggressors throughout the series, as we can see from the fact that Diana turned Harper in the first place but I should acknowledge the effort.
This part of the comic also lets the art shine a lot more as it takes place in spookier environments like castles and forests. The art of this section was done by Nikola Čižmešija and Francesco Segala, who are pretty good with the environments and action poses but probably should have been a bit more careful with the faces.
Why does she have a guilty expression…from a shōjo anime?Score: 8/10
Light
The second part of this comic deals with Green Lantern Alfred and his attempts to make his ring work. He gets a mentor in the form of Guy, who is half the man he used to be after an encounter with Vampire Wonder Woman, to train him to use the ring better.
This is much weaker than the first part (meaning Darkness is stronger than Light — an apt metaphor for this series). Not only do we waste time with a pointless training montage, but Alfred is clearly not worthy of the ring due to his lack of willpower. And while it could be pointed out that the ring doesn’t have that many choices as Alfred’s one of the few good humans left, a) the rings have never worked like that and b) one of the most memorable parts of the series early on was watching Vampire Hal Jordan kill people in incredibly gruesome ways using his ring.
Maybe give the ring to the kid, AlfredI do like how Daniel Bayliss and Pierluigi Casolino depict the ring constructs in this section, especially the ones made by Guy. They are equal parts creative and fun to look at.
Score: 7/10
Recommended If
- You’re a Guy Gardner fan
- You wanted the vampires to display a bit more character other than evil
- You’re collecting all the DC vs Vampires comics
Overall
While this one-shot isn’t necessarily bad, with some decent character moments and artwork to carry it, it’s hard to recommend it. It doesn’t help out with the plot of the overall narrative (good luck figuring out when this takes place) and can feel like a cheap move to milk out a little more cash out of anybody still reading this series. However, if you can look past that huge caveat, the contents of this one-shot aren’t terrible.
Score: 6.5/10 (would have been a 7.5 but loses a point owing to it costing more)
Disclaimer: DC Comics provided Batman News with a copy of this comic for the purpose of this review.
English (US) · 