American Vampire #25 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Rafael Albuquerque (art), Dave McCaig (colors), Jared Fletcher (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: This 50’s era arc wraps up with a big battle between Skinner & Travis.

A Few Things: 

Everything ties up nicely. – The last time it seemed like Scott Snyder was taking us in a brand new direction was the Las Vegas arc (roughly #6-#10).  At the time, it seemed only loosely connected to the first arc of AV and I wondered if AV was going to be a series of loosely connected arcs.  This arc again seemed quite different as we had a new protagonist and only the loosest of ties to the previous material, until this issue where (again) Snyder has tied all the action up nicely.  It’s just so damn clever.  By writing this way, Snyder is keeping each arc very accessible to the new reader but THEN making it pay off for the long-timers.  What can I say? Month after month Snyder shows how he’s more talented and more devoted than the typical comic writer.  No wonder all the cool artists want to work with him!  [As an aside, let me say how annoying the naysayers are who say, “Yeah?  Well, Snyder’s comics are great, but he DOES work with nothing but the best artists!”  That makes it sound as if Snyder has either (a) hit the lottery of artist assignment over and over again or (b) that artists have no choice in who they choose to work with.  It’s a virtuous cycle: Snyder and great artists want to work together because they want a partner of comparable skill and level of devotion.  I guarantee you that if I started to write a comic, I would have exactly ZERO A-list artists wanting to work on the project because I’m not that good of a writer.]

Two or three cool twists at the end. –  SPOILERS…  Three… Two… One… Okay, how cool was it that Skinner is working with the Vassals?  Talk about strange bedfellows!  But then, history is FULL of stories of kinda-enemies coming together to deal with a greater threat.  It happened in WWII when the USA, Great Britain teamed up with the Soviet Union to fight the Axis.  Heck, it happened in The Hunger Games.  Nevertheless, I never saw this twist coming.  I wonder what Pearl’s role in this was (if anything) since the Vassals know about her?  Or is it just leftover from the Vassals/Skinner team up in WWII?  Of less import was the double cross on Travis by the young girl.  I guess it really doesn’t matter to the AV story longer term, but it was still really unexpected and the way Travis sniffed it out shows that he isn’t distracted by a pretty girl.  And the final twist was in the Epilogue….  Let’s just say that I doubt this long-term, well-developed character will go out in an Epilogue.  Will he become a vampire and if so, will he be an old-school vampire or an American Vampire?  It’d be kinda cool from a dramatic standpoint if he were old-school, right?

American Vampire #24 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Rafael Albuquerque (art), Dave McCaig (colors), Jared Fletcher (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: Fighting vampires on the hood of a speeding car.

A few things: 

1. Very smoothly written. – How do I know that Scott Snyder has a gift with the English language?  It’s because I don’t mind his narration boxes.  Using narration boxes as a primary element of storytelling usually annoy me: they’re overwrought (“Gotham is a living beast…blah…blah”) and usually are attempting to make up for other deficits in the storytelling OR they are duplicating things that the art already tells us.  But, I’ll be damned if Snyder doesn’t make narration boxes work.  Some of his success stems from how he uses the boxes; past tense color commentary versus present tense pointing out the obvious.  But, I also think Snyder is just a better writer than we usually get in comics.  He’s probably too good for comics.  His words flow.

2. Fun story that adds to the AV universe. – Travis is a great addition to the AV mythos.  He’s just some hardscrabble kid whose family was killed by vampires and he is meting out his revenge one vampire at a time.  I enjoy the Vassals of the Morning Star as a concept, but the Vassals are an ancient European society of vampire hunters.  Their secret society nature is kinda like European royalty.  Given the themes of this book, it makes sense that we’d see a character like Travis who is quintessentially American: He’s on the same side as those Euro-tinged Vassals, but he’s his own man, pulled himself up by his bootstraps and he’ll kill vampires his own way, thank you.  And we see some of that attitude in his rejection of the Vassals in this issue.  Actually, in hindsight it makes sense that the Vassals were more instrumental in previous arcs that took place before World War II.  After WWII, America really emerged as the sole western superpower, so I wonder if Snyder is using Travis as an allegory?  Are the Vassals going to be proxies for France and represent an increasingly ineffective ally?  Heck, I wonder if we’re going to see vampires as a proxy for communism or used as a “red scare”?

3. Typically wonderful art from Albuquerque. – I’ve really enjoyed this arc from Albuquerque.  In some ways, I think he’s gone back to the style that he was using at the beginning of this series that was a little more cartoony and open, but on certain panels he’s still ramping up the vibrancy from the characters (like in that tight panel of Travis hanging off the front of the speeding car…Wow).  Man, do I love this guy’s art! This is a rare comic that actually merits a reread just to focus on the art.  There is some goody in every panel.  Take this panel where he shows a mouth gag being removed from young Travis’ mouth…THAT could be a really dull panel, but Albuquerque puts some blood on his face (so you know he’s been smacked around) and puts a trail of spittle from the gag to Travis’ lips, that trail of spittle (a) indicates the action in the scene because without it you wouldn’t know which way the gag was moving and (b) shows that this cork thingie is a gag that was deep in Travis’ mouth.

American Vampire #23 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Rafael Albuquerque (artist), Dave McCaig (colors), Jared Fletcher (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: The Death Race arc gives us a little background on our new vampire hunter, Travis.

Four Things: [SPOILERS]

1. This is a background issue. – Last issue introduced a bunch of brand new characters, so the creators had some background work to do.  They do a pretty nice job of showing us bits of that background in scenes that bounce back and forth with the titular “present day” death race between Travis and the vampire.  Honestly, this is a hard issue to pull off.  We readers DO need a little background on new characters, but getting that background can be like eating your vegetables.  The creators make those vegetables about as tasty as possible and remind me of a cooking truism: If you cook something in bacon fat and garlic, just about anything tastes good.  I’m not sure who of Snyder and Albuquerque is bacon fat and who is garlic, but the same truism applies.  Not only does the background give us information about Travis and the other characters, but it also opens up interesting mysteries for the creators to play with in future issues.

2. Very nice art. – As some of you know, I bind my single issues into hardcovers.  One really cool thing about that is you get to revisit early issues and appreciate how much an artist’s style changes over time.  I’d observed this in AV as Albuquerque’s style had changed a little by the end of the Ghost War arc.  But the art in this issue looks very much like what he was doing at the beginning of the series.  I almost wonder if he went back to revisit those first few issues and found himself inspired.  The characters in this issue go back to that smoother look that they had in the beginning and I like it.  There’s so much to love about Albuquerque’s work.  Just seeing the work he does with the brush on his backgrounds and the way he scatters ink and white-out (?) all over the place is kinda mesmerizing.

American Vampire #22 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Rafael Albuquerque (artist), Dave McCaig (colors), Jared Fletcher (letters), Joe Hughes (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)

The Story: We jump forward to the 1950’s for another vampire story from Snyder & Albuquerque

Five Things: [SPOILER WARNING]

1. Great to be back into the “ongoing” story” – I saw a few reviewers (not me) who expressed some displeasure with the last story arc featuring Jordi Bernet on art.  That story was a look at Skinner Sweet and John Book in the late 1860’s and it felt a little like a flashback because [SPOILERS] Skinner had died in the preceding arc and also just because it was in the past.  That’s probably not the proper way to look at this story given that the really isn’t a current timeframe to make that story “the past” and that there’s a decent chance that Snyder and Albuquerque are telling one BIG story in semi-non-linear fashion.  Still, this story felt like it had forward momentum and a sense of newness about it.

2. Nice bit of misdirection as to the identity of the vampire(s). – I love how this story opens with it being very unclear who the vampires are.  You start out thinking for SURE that it is the teenage guy driving the muscle car.  He even has a “Skinner Sweet look” about him.  So, you worry about what’s going to happen to this cute girl that he’s dating.  Thus, I loved the plot twist when it became clear that the parents of the girl were the vampires and the kid was a vampire hunter who was just using the girl to get to the parents (who were using the girl to bring them the boy, LOL).  There was just something about the way Albuquerque drew the parents coming out of the house, they kinda stick to the shadows and then McCaig gives the father a dot of a red eye in one panel.  It doesn’t conform that they’re vampires, but it’s enough to start your brain churning before the reveal a few pages later.  And there are lots of subtle clues in the dialog too (“they’ll chew you out.”).  It’s the kind of well-executed reveal that I wish more comics devoted themselves to because it shows that not only do the creators have a cool idea, they also understand the mechanics of a sequential storytelling well enough to pull off the reveal.

3. Neat new characters. – This new teenage, James Dean-esque guy named Travis Kidd sure is nifty.  Love his attitude.  Love that he’s a self-trained vampire hunter.  How’d he learn to do that?  How long has he been on the radar of the Vassals of the Morning Star, yet staying outside of their system?  Questions abound and they’re all juicy.  And the new girl is fun too.  In a way, they remind me of Pearl and Henry from the first few story arcs.  Not sure why that is given that neither of them is a vampire, but they have this same vibe of two people who are both “involved” in the vampire world, but a little outside of the “mainstream” vamp vs. Vassals conflict.

Detective Comics #874 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Francesco Francavilla (art/colors), Jared Fletcher (letters), Janelle Siegel (associate editor) & Mike Marts (editor)

The Story: Two stories that tie together… One dealing with Jim Gordon having a sit down with his insane son, and the other showing Batman & Red Robin busting up an animal smuggling operation.

What’s Good: Different artists are good at different things.  I’m sure there are some who can do just about anything in any style, but most artists have a thing that they do really well.  And one of the tricks for a writer is to craft a story that plays to the artist’s strengths.  Scott Snyder is really nailing that in this issue.  Francesco Francavilla may be able to draw all sorts of different ways, but he is best known for a certain dark moody style, so Snyder is feeding him a horror-infused story and the result is pretty amazing.  One of the things that I love about Francavilla’s work is that he inks and colors it himself.  That allows him to be a master of where the light source is in the panel, which plays right into his style that leans heavily on lighting.  I really love the guy’s coloring where he is less concerned about the precise color of gray that Batman’s suit should be, and more interested in the fact that it is a dark and ominous scene and should have a red wash over everything.  I also love his lettering of sound effects!

Snyder is really establishing himself quickly as a master of horror-themed Batman stories.  [Spoiler alert]  The Jim Gordon story starts with a claim by Jim, Jr. that he has killed a waitress and stuffed her head into the men’s room toilet.  Even though he says he is kidding, as his conversation with his dad continues, you start to see water coming out under the bathroom door and the whole time you’re thinking, “Oh shit!  He really killed a waitress!”  What is soooo effective about this is as a reader, it helps you identify with Jim, Sr.  The guy is off balance because his crazy son has showed up out of the blue and told him that he’s a clinical psychopath.  How could you think straight if your son had said that?  Then as a reader, we’re only partially focused on what Jim, Jr. is saying because we really want to know what is in the bathroom.  Very well done.

Detective Comics #871 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Jock (art), David Baron (colors), Jared Fletcher (letters) & Mike Marts (editor)

Commissioner Gordon back-up by: Snyder (writer), Francesco Francavilla (art & colors), Fletcher (letters) & Marts (editor)

The Story: Dick Grayson settles into his role as the Batman of Gotham City with a case that comes straight from the GCPD’s evidence locker!

What’s Good: New creative teams bring excitement to a title.  What will they do?  What past stories will they pull from?  Will it be good?  So, it was a great pleasure to see a promising new(er) writer (and super nice guy) like Scott Snyder take a stab at Dick Grayson’s Batman.  The basic set-up for this story is pretty simple: Someone is stealing super-villain stuff from the GCPD evidence locker and selling it to the highest bidder.  Imagine all the crap that the Gotham cops have taken from Batman’s rogues gallery over the years and you can see what a potential for mayhem we have.

But, what separates this issue is that Snyder obviously knows a lot about Batman and Dick Grayson’s past.  A writer needn’t be a slave to continuity, but when we’re reading a comic that is #871 there should be some nods to the past.  So, it’s a nice bit of fan service when writers dig up and use those little scraps of stories from years past and Snyder works it to great effect in writing the relationship between Dick Grayson and Jim Gordon.  Dick has basically grown up with Gordon around and he has a past as a cop, so it makes sense that this would affect their relationship both in and out of the cowl.  Snyder also makes an effort to differentiate Dick’s Batman.  Dick isn’t the looming/brooding creature of the night like Bruce and that is well captured here.  He’s younger, happier, cockier and showier.  Snyder “gets it” and I appreciate that as a reader.

We’ve seen Jock draw Batman before, so it isn’t any surprise that the art is stellar.  What sets Jock apart in my mind are the choices he makes on the page: should a scene be realistic or fantastical, would a scene work better without a background or even a panel border, should an insane scene use jumbled panels, etc…  He pretty much always makes a good choice and he also knows how to draw Dick as distinct from Bruce (even when they are wearing the costume).

The back-up is a nice story about Commissioner Gordon.  The cool thing about this back-up is that the bird theme bleeds into the main story.  Anytime a writer has a chance to make it clear that two comic stories are happening at the same time and place, I’m all for that.  Francavilla’s art is wonderfully soft and moody.  Nice stuff!