A war several hundred years in the making is about to breakout.
What They Say:
For hundreds of years, vampire Andrew Stanton kept mankind safe from the horrors of the supernatural world, thanks to a truce he made with his ex-lover Mary, the Queen of the Damned. But now that truce has reached a bloody end and Andrew must do everything in his power to stop Mary and her dark forces from going on a killing spree!
The Review:
While the world has been dealing with the Twilight/young adult world of vampires for the last few years, I do continue to hold out hope for good vampire material. With the announcement from DC Comics that they were going to do a series called I, Vampire as part of the relaunch, I was certainly intrigued since the blending of them into the world of superheroes could offer up something really good. They’re certainly not unfamiliar in the world of mainstream superhero comics, but by putting them into the shadows here and then slowly bringing them to the forefront, you can easily see the potential for an event or something significant happening down the road to tie it firmly to the mainstream universe while also playing well around the edges. With Joshua Hale Fialkov handing the writing chores and Andrea Sorrentino on the art side, I knew it would at least read well and looks appealing, even as it does play to the young adult side.
The present day storyline here puts us in Boston, where things have gone to hell and we see the aftermath as quite a few people in the dirty, hazy light have been put to death or been turned to vampires. In the midst of that, we’re introduced to Andrew Stanton, a vampire that is now on the bad side of the vampires that he’s known for the last four hundred years as they’ve prepared a trap for him that puts him at odds with a significant number of new vampires that don’t even understand what they are or why he’s trying to kill them, or in his mind save them from becoming a real problem for the rest of humanity. The book uses this as a sort of bookend to things, with a few glimpses in between of what Andrew sees, but the rest of the book is where the context comes in.
Though it’s not exactly linear and just scratching the surface of things, we do learn that Andrew has managed to keep the peace all these hundreds of years with his former lover, Mary, the self named Queen of the Damned. But she’s not exactly of the same mindset as him when it comes to how they view humanity. Her view is that they’re livestock while he’s only drank the blood of animals. The two had worked a truce that kept the vampire numbers low and at bay, but she’s been increasingly resistant to the idea and has been building up her own little army in order to announce themselves to the world so they can take the rightful place as the rulers. There are some minor quirks to vampires introduced here, but largely we get to see the quasi-romantic relationship the pair share and just how far gone it is at this point as she’s slightly mad and very angry with Andrew for his positions and how it’s held her back.
Fialkov’s story here is good, it covers the bases well, but the structure of it and the mood of it all doesn’t quite work to keep you thoroughly engaged. I’m still not a huge fan of the back and forth structure for books like this as I would rather see just a straight on look at the past and then hit right to the present and go forward with a bit more of a shock. Some of the conversations are a little forced when it comes to how he interacts with the vampires in Boston in the present, but alternatively I liked the way he pleaded with them not to kill the innocents they came across when he was trying to get away. Sorrentino’s artwork is appropriately moody, gritty and dark but some of the layouts kept the conversation from flowing well when it focused between Andrew and Mary. Mary is intentionally supposed to be aloof at this point, being done with Andrew, but it was just too off-putting to me with how it was handled.
Digital Notes:
This Comixology edition of I, Vampire contains the main cover as seen with the print edition with no variants or other extras included.
In Summary:
While I had never read the original run which ran in House of Mystery back in the early 80’s by J.M. DeMatteis (which really surprises me as I adore his supernatural work), I, Vampire has a good bit of potential here but feels a bit full of itself in a way. The premise is one that I can get behind and I’m curious how it’ll impact the rest of the DC universe as that’s where the fun can be, but I also like that we’re getting books that should be able to operate behind the scenes a bit rather than fully involved. It’s got a few problems to it and provides more of a tease than anything truly substantial, but it’s a book I’m curious to see whether it can capitalize on what it wants to do, and if it can make things much clearer about where it intends to go. Vampires have a tough road to deal with these days because of Twilight and that can make a book like this a bit harder to deal with, but this could be a book that might lay some solid groundwork and foundation for future events. I’m cautiously optimistic with it, but it’ll take a few issues to really be sure.
Grade: C
