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.
4. Fighting on the hood of a car is a little far-fetched. – I guess I can buy that Skinner can do it. He’s a vampire. But, how is Travis pulling this off? How does the car continue going straight for that matter? I also wasn’t precisely sure how the cars jumped over that cliff and ended up at the drive-in theatre. I know I’m being a little nit-picky, but heck….I pour enough praise on these guys’ work that I’m entitled to point out the little stuff. It speaks volumes to the overall quality of the comic that little things are bothersome. I want AV to be perfect whereas most comics I accept “pretty good”. Double standards…
Conclusion: Another very strong issue. It is issue 3 out of 4 in this story arc, so it doesn’t have any stunning revelations but that’s to be expected. But, it is well-written, well-conceived and well-illustrated. If you aren’t reading AV, you’re doing it wrong.
Grade: A-
-Dean Stell
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