I, Vampire #11 – Review

By: Joshua Hale Fialkov (story), Andrea Sorrentino (art), Marcelo Maiolo (colors)

The Story: As it turns out, the undead feeding on the undead is only a good idea in theory.

The Review: Considering how many titles I picked up within the first month of the DC relaunch (thirty-one) and how many I added along the way (twelve) and how many I still keep up with (twenty-six), it’s actually quite an achievement for I, Vampire to have stuck around on my pull list for this long.  Honestly, I would’ve guessed that I’d drop I, Vampire long before I dropped Teen Titans or Legion Lost, so this series has surpassed my expectations in many ways.

But upon some reflection, this title really stopped doing that somewhere shortly after the first two or three issues.  What drew me to the series in the first place—what convinced me that I wouldn’t just be reading Twilight in a comic book (which probably ranks up there in my Things I Would Commit a Felony Not to Do list) was both the complex relationship between Andrew and Mary and the conflicting ideologies they embodied.

I, Vampire #10 – Review

By: Joshua Hale Fialkov (story), Andrea Sorrentino (art), Marcelo Maiolo (colors

The Story: The Van Helsings offer a very attractive insurance policy.

The Review: No need for a full-blown editorial, but when people complain about sameness of offering half a dozen Batman titles at once, yet simultaneously criticize the variety of choices available—well, it’s funny.  One of DC’s initiatives in its relaunch is to inject diversity into their entire line.  Not racially, of course, as the utter failures of Mister Terrific and Static Shock attest.  But you can’t deny the tonal landscape of the DCU has colored a lot since it rebooted itself.

So you can easily figure out the clockwork in the publishers’ head in choosing I, Vampire as part of its pristine line-up of 52 titles, especially over so many other deserving ones.  Fialkov definitely offers a very different voice from much anything else in mainstream comics: passionate yet detached, philosophical but without much investment in its philosophy.  It may very well be the most driven and somehow also careless series you read from DC.

I, Vampire #9 – Review

By: Joshua Hale Fialkov (story), Andrea Sorrentino (art), Marcelo Maiolo (colors)

The Story: Even monster-slaying can’t resist going corporate after all these centuries.

The Review: Now that I’ve had a month to mull upon this series’ most recent events, I must conclude the whole Justice League Dark crossover and the “Rise of the Vampires” were a bit premature.  Since Andrew still hadn’t made peace with his role in the vampire world, for Fialkov to suddenly thrust him into such a major shift in position felt like an almost unintended move, one which neither Andrew nor Fialkov know what to do with from now on.

After all, now that Andrew has this massive army of vampires under his wing, it’s not exactly clear what he plans to do with them all.  He clearly won’t allow them to feed upon actual humans, but he can’t keep them cooped up in a Hooverville out in the Utah desert forever—that weekly shipment of “five hundred head of cattle” will get pretty dear before too long.  It’s an unsustainable situation, a fact Mary points out with some amusement.

I, Vampire #8 – Review

By: Joshua Hale Fialkov (story), Andrea Sorrentino (art), Marcelo Maiolo (colors)

The Story: Andrew and Mary take another step in their Ross-and-Rachel relationship.

The Review: Between you and me, I hate crossover events.  I’m not talking about Marvel and DC’s Big Events, the ones with their own maxi-series and scads of tie-ins, most of which are frivolous and immaterial.  With these you can choose which to buy, and which to rightfully ignore.  It’s a bit different when one title’s story spills into another, then spills back in again later, practically force you into picking up issues you never intended to get in the first place.

So it annoyed me to find “Rise of the Vampires” crossed over into Justice League Dark, a title I unceremoniously dropped just a few months before.  While this issue doesn’t start off in a drastically different place than where we left off last month, it’s nonetheless clear that a fairly important chunk of the story happened elsewhere, as we see Andrew Bennett returned from the “dead” and better than ever since Xanadu apparently “shunted” Cain’s power to him.

I, Vampire #7 – Review

By: Joshua Hale Fialkov (writer), Andrea Sorrentino (artist), Marcelo Maiolo (colorist)

The Story: Apparently, magic is the high-potency acid of the vampire world.

The Review: In some ways, I don’t find this series groundbreaking as I find that it breaks away from the preconceived notions it invites you to make about it.  Think of the first time you heard the premise: a slender vampire with heartthrob looks pitting himself against his own lover, whom he turned himself.  Who knew you’d get a story about two individuals with incompatible views on life, yet who are attracted to each other all the more even as they vie for each other’s deaths?

Even more appreciably, the series has avoided all the usual nail-biting brooding you usually expect from these semi-romantic vampire tales nowadays, focusing more on the more violent, morally questionable qualities of the creatures.  In this issue, Fialkov truly dabbles in angst for the first time as Andrew uses the luxury of non-existence to reflect on his actions: “I’ve done more harm than good.”  But even here, Andy doesn’t ruminate for long, rejecting the notion that he’s destined for greater things with a dismissive, “Destiny is for teenage girls.  I spew death.”

You might wonder whom he’s scoffing at so boldly, but not even death-spewing Andrew can get that answer.  We can deduce a few things by simple observation.  This off-page voice must have some prime role in the balance of the universe, since he recounts the primordial origins of Cain (“Before there was light or dark or heaven or earth, there was blackness.”) with authority.  And since he can keep the slain Andrew from whisking off to the afterlife, and hints that he can restore Andrew to the world of the living, he must be pretty powerful as well.

Yet for all that, we still don’t know how Cain and Andrew’s lives are tied together, considering the former predates the latter by eons.  We only get a hint that an “army of great mystical warriors,” most likely the Demon Knights, had something to do with using Andrew as the “seal” on Cain’s imprisonment.

I, Vampire #6 – Review

By: Joshua Hale Fialkov (writer), Andrea Sorrentino (artist), Marcelo Maiolo (colorist)

The Story: It’s the ultimate showdown between two immortal, monster lovers.  Heads will roll.

The Review: When DC first announced its new 52, I leaped on the Judgment Train just like everyone else, although I tried, in the spirit of cautious optimism, to keep my opinions to myself.  One of the series I instantly dismissed just from the cover and concept was I, Vampire.  With the Twilight craze reaching concerning proportions, looking at that picture of a thin-hipped, shirtless Andrew Bennet, complete with idol, streaked haircut, made me ever so slightly nauseated.

So Fialkov deserves a lot of credit for overturning that prejudice and making this title one of the stronger middleweights of the current DC canon.  Probably the best thing he ever did for this series was take the usual angsty vampire romance and remove the soap opera elements from it, infusing it with a seemingly irresolvable conflict between restraint and freedom, safety and dignity, love and justice.

Of course, the figureheads of these conflicts, Andrew and Mary, are the most intriguing characters of the series.  The fact that they candidly proclaim their attraction to each other at the same time that they actively seek each other’s deaths could very well have become a silly device in the hands of a lesser writer, but Fialkov mines the humor, the tragedy, and the depth of this tumultuous relationship with great finesse.  That said, it seems both vamp veterans have set aside whatever softer feelings they had for each other in this issue,

I, Vampire #5 – Review

By: Joshua Hale Fialkov (writer), Andrea Sorrentino (artist), Marcelo Maiolo (colorist)

The Story: You’re one to talk, Batman—most people think you’re a vampire, too.

The Review: Throwing in any guest star of the Dark Knight’s caliber can be a risky business.  As a major character with an established, popular fan-base, people have certain expectations of him.  It’s something like wearing a sombrero at work; you can’t really go walking around, doing your normal thing, and not explain to people what’s the deal with the sombrero.  So it goes with Batman.  If you want to have him in there, you better have a good reason for it.

I suppose the fact that vampires have taken nest in Gotham is reason enough to get Batman involved.  More than that, Fialkov puts the caped crusader to good use, balancing both his hyper-competence with the fact that he’s mostly out of place with these particular foes.  Despite Andrew’s unnatural abilities, Batman’s able to hold his own, actually getting the vampire riled up.  At the same time, you know Batman only has an academic idea of what he’s up against, a frustration he expresses by being gruffer than ever: “You’re still a monster…  Fine.  We work together.  For now.”

Despite the presence of such a major icon in their midst, the regular characters keep their composure and make it clear this is their title.  While John does little more in the issue than try to keep a fight from breaking out among his companions, Tig actually attempts to incite one (“He’s a vampire!  He’s in love with the one who did all of this.  Kill him.  Better yet, let me.”).  If you hoped she’d be a force of cuteness, albeit a deadly one, in this series, you learn very quickly that she’s not taken in by Andrew’s charm, and she has a lot of resentment left to work through.

I, Vampire #4 – Review

by Joshua Hale Fialkov (writing), Andrea Sorrentino (art), Marcelo Maiolo (colors), and Pat Brosseau (letters)

The Story: Andrew meets with a relatively new vampire still learning about undead life, but is this vampire redeemable?

The Review: It’s quickly become clear that I, Vampire’s greatest asset thus far has been it’s atmosphere.  Without being gritty, this is really the book that lives up to the “dark” in “DC Dark.”  That’s not to say that it’s overwrought or overly violent or twisted, only that there’s a constant edge of downcast, doomed horror to the book that gives it a particular bite.  That’s here again this month; this is issue is a real downer in the best way possible.  I, Vampire continues to be a moody comic, which makes it a comic that creates a world to get lost in.  It also leads to a book that is different from any other DC offering.  Of course, Sorrentino is a big part of that.  His art is absolutely gorgeous and is as much mood as it is storytelling.  It’s distinctive and it’s gorgeous and Sorrentino has made himself an irreplaceable part of the book.

The plot this month involving Andrew’s meeting a newer vampire really lends itself well to this.  It allows Fialkov to show the difficulty of following the straight and narrow for a vampire, while also still making it clear that being evil, for a vampire, is a choice, even if there is pressure to go one way.

The end result is a plot that shows just how easy it is to give in to the beast within.  This also emphasizes just how unique Andrew Bennett really is and, in so doing, it makes the character appear all the more isolated, highlighting Fialkov’s vision of Andrew as a kind of vampiric iconoclast.

In the midst of all of this is John Constantine.  I was a bit uncomfortable with the idea of a guest appearance from the DCU in I, Vampire, but Constantine fits right in.  If there’s one downside to his appearance, it’s that I wish his entrance into the comic was set-up a bit in a previous issue, as opposed to him just randomly showing up this month.  That said, he’s a fine addition, is his usual non-chalant, badass self, and his having such a different personality to Andrew makes for a solid dynamic.

I, Vampire #3 – Review

By: Joshua Hale Fialkov (writer), Andrea Sorrentino (artist), Marcelo Maiolo (colorist)

The Story: Thank heaven for little girls—who shoot arrows into your arms.

The Review: The last three years or so have been something of a revival for vampires in the media, everything from the grossly romanticized (Twilight) to the artistic (American Vampire) to those in between (Vampire Diaries).  In many of these works, writers have taken to humanizing these creatures of the night, emphasizing their capacity for self-restraint and love so you almost forget the risk of their constant bloodlust.

This series takes the opposite route.  The opening pages demonstrate what happens when the vampires decide to let their vices go unchecked: nationwide fear as four cities swiftly fall victim to Mary’s revolution.  In each of these cities, you see the bloody ruins of what the vampires leave behind in the wake of their attacks, a grim portent of the dystopia that awaits the world should they succeed in the long run.

For that reason, you become highly invested in Andrew, “the only man who can save [the world],” according to best friend and fellow vampire hunter John Troughton.  Previous issues pretty well established our hero’s merciless dedication to policing his own kind.  That he has a completely loyal ally who grew up learning to hate vampires gives credit to Andrew’s virtue, and it gives you a sense of relief that he won’t have to fight this battle alone.

I, Vampire #1 – Review

by Joshua Hale Fialkov (writer), Andrea Sorrentino (art), Marcelo Maidlo (colors), and Pat Brosseau (letters)

The Review: Every once in a while, you read a comic that just has that indefinable, special “something” where everything just clicks.  This is one of those books and despite being semi-retired from WCBR, I had to come back for it.

With Catwoman, Red Hood, and Voodoo all coming out over the last two weeks, a lot has been made about the sex and violence that’s present in the DCnU.  For many, things like Starfire’s sex drive, Catwoman’s various states of undress, and Voodoo’s stripping constitute “mature content.”  I, Vampire is a book that makes such a definition of “mature content” appear laughable.  This, my friends, is quite possibly the most “mature” of the DC new 52.  There’s off-screen sex, there’s dead bodies galore, there’s violence, and there’s blood.

But unlike those other DC titles I mentioned, not a bit of this content is sensationalist or exploitative.  None of it is done purely for its own sake.  This is “mature content” that lives up to its name, where the violence is meaningful and emotionally laden and hence, all the more horrifying and affecting for it (there are a couple panels, a vampire attack in a subway station, that will surely haunt any reader).  The sexual tension between main characters Andrew and Marie is sincere, gripping, a relationship that is completely character driven.

There’s a strong argument to be made that Mary may be the sexiest female of the new 52.  She manages this without ever contorting her body into strange poses or showing off her lingerie.  Rather, it’s all in her words.  Mary’s dialogue is absolutely riveting.  Her sexuality is palpable, one psychological weapon in a mental toolbox for a character that is brilliant, sadistic, sociopathic, and utterly manipulative.  Fialkov has managed to fashion a character that leaps off the page.  Moreover, he’s made Mary into a character that is at once attractive and repulsive.  It’s clear that she’s evil and twisted as hell, and yet there’s no denying her charisma.  In fact, she’s such a seductive character that she seduces the reader almost as much as she does Andrew.  Her words, her playing on Andrew’s guilt and their shared history, her sadistic and sickening playfulness, all lead to an absolutely fascinating foil for Andrew.