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.
In fact, it’s not even clear how Andrew managed to get all the vampires to fall in line with his leadership in the first place. Their thirst for human blood seems unchangeable, and grows more intense by the day. Yet Andrew offers only vague promises of “a new life for us all,” and that only by following him will their existence be assured. Surprisingly, Mary doesn’t offer many details either, merely stating her lover will “remake us in his image,” a goal so abstract it makes you suspect she doesn’t know what any of them are doing in Utah either.
Considering the increasing dissent among the ranks, the only explanation for Andrew’s continued sway over them is his unchallengeable might. We saw last time he’s gained quite a few levels in the magic department, but only here do we realize what a ridiculous amount of power he really has. Dusting and rematerializing a horde of vampires seems somehow natural, but ripping off some human heads and putting them back on, leaving the victims none the wiser, gives you some pause.
And the fact that Andrew engaged in this savagery at all, though it led to no permanent results, indicates there’s been a deeper change in him than his power set. Maybe the frustrations of dealing with his unhappy horde are getting to him, but his problems seem to go deeper than that. Remember how he sent John and Tig to the Van Helsings? Well, now it looks like the whole goal is to get the ancient order of monster-slayers to Utah and clean up Andrew’s problems the old-fashioned way—though apparently, the Van Helsings have modernized their means in the intermittent years. This army of commandos certainly is nothing you’re expecting.
Sorrentino has proven a master of depicting landscapes of urban grimness, but now he gets to show some versatility as he handles rural desert country and European Gothic with equal adeptness. He does have a bad habit of concealing the characters’ expressions in shadow, a trick which works best in moderation but which he overuses to the book’s emotional detriment. Maiolo’s colors are as perfectly complementary as ever, his searing bright reds and oranges ideal for conveying the hot, oppressive barrenness of the American Southwest.
Conclusion: Though still intrigued with Fialkov’s storytelling, the series’ lack of direction has grown noticeable enough to be troubling. At some point, he has to stop playing games and give us some real, exposing details to work with.
Grade: B-
– Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: – A shame that Mary and Andrew’s reconciliation is set to be a brief one. But then, in all likelihood, they’ve gone through this off-and-on-again routine a lot during their long-lived relationship.
– Okay, first of all, with so many Van Helsings around, how could a vampire uprising go unchecked in the first place? Sleeping on the job, boys!
– And if your goal is to ensure they’re telling the truth, what’s the point of knocking out your victims after they’ve told you everything?