When an unstoppable force arrives…
Creative Staff:
Story: Matthew Rosenberg
Art: Otto Schmidt
Colorist: Pierluigi Casolino
Letterer: Tom Napolitano
What They Say:
The child of Mister Miracle and Big Barda has been heralded as the only one capable of ending the war between vampires and humans…or so Granny Goodness says. Has her savior narrative just been a smoke screen for the arrival of Darkseid?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With a number of alternate timeline-contained storylines over the past decade, there were a lot that I’ve enjoyed. But there were also just a lot and I didn’t get into the DC Vs Vampires until recently as I was reminded about it as there’s a new limited series running, which I’m just now getting to. The original twelve-issue work came from writers James Tynion and Matthew Rosenberg who certainly have a good hand at writing a lot of the main cast of the DC universe and can tackle the big stories while still making them personable. This one has just Rosenberg on board for the writing but everything still feels largely the same. The book also worked out well with Otto Schmidt on the artwork as they’ve got a distinctive style that may be off-putting at times but works well with a lot of the characters in general. With a lot of strong work behind them in past material for the property, it’s definitely welcome to largely have the same team back.
The addition of Darkseid into things certainly changed up the dynamic here, and while there is some expectation that humans and vampires will fight together, that’s not happening at the moment. The initial fight with the parademons is something that’s not going well since it’s an overwhelming and unexpected force and the vampires at least seem to believe it’s something the humans have launched, at least for a minute. Jade’s idea that if it bleeds they can feed is proven very, very, wrong and that starts their attempt to retreat. Something the human side did already. It’s a pretty good sequence with some gorgeous action pages with the big fights, lots of blood, and just chaos unfolding. Add in some panic and the moments of attempting to protect the Queen before the realization sets in that there’s something far more dangerous at play here than expected sinks in.
The human side of the retreat has its moments, especially with Oliver trying to keep enough people alive but also knowing when he can’t save someone, and watching as Damian continues to try and achieve his goal of killing the Queen being stayed. The vampire side is more interesting as Wonder Woman is protecting the Queen and ends up facing off against Darkseid directly. It’s not exactly a comical fight since Darkseid just kind of lets her go through the motions as when he sets his mind to just stopping her, he can do it within a second. I did like the moment that he wanted to keep her alive to kill her in front of the Queen, but he just tosses her aside when he learns Gordon escaped. Gordon, for her part, is trying to gather her generals together after that but she’s starting to learn how badly that’s going, including that Aquaman has been killed and things are not well down in Atlantis after that event happened…
In Summary:
The opening to this issue has a curious bit that takes place “somewhere hidden” that has a number of characters that are essentially just staying separate from all the events going on. With L-Ron involved, we get the nod that they’re all either robots, cyborgs, or those enhanced heavily through tech that should make for a good twist soon. Knowing that some of the Metal Men are still alive will always make me happy. Anyway, the bulk of the book is just pure action, and it leans into it hard and with consequences. Again, that’s the best part of these alternate timeline books in that they’re able to just follow through on tough stories with “realistic” deaths and changes. Darkseid’s arrival is a game-changer in a big way, and I like how it unfolds, especially now that he believes what he’s after here is no longer here and the planet and its people have no value to him. It’s going to get bleaker before it gets bette,r and I am down for that.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics
Release Date: March 12th, 2025
MSRP: $4.99
