By: Scott Snyder (writer), Dustin Nguyen (art), John Kalisz (colors), Steve Wands (letters), Gregory Lockard (assistant editor) & Mark Doyle (editor)
The Story: The Soviets have a problem with their superweapon! Go figure….
A few things: 1). This art is just unfair. – Dustin Nguyen and John Kalisz can make a kinda pretty comic book, huh? The sheer variety of looks in this issue is really something. On one hand, they can show you all this softness on the face of little Gus or his adoptive mother Felicia….or even the manipulated Mr. Glass. All three of these characters look smooth and soft….you can almost imagine what their skin would feel like. Kalisz especially does a wonderful job with putting highlights on the skin in such a way that it looks natural and not like some lousy Photoshop effect. But, this is a story about vampires and killing, so they also have to show us snarling vampires and grim-faced men….and they excel at that too. Even the buildings and machines (trains, guns, etc.) look great. The only negative is that we learn that Nguyen can’t draw a tiger very well, but Snyder probably didn’t know that when he put it in the script.
2). Mr. Snyder has gotten out a lot of toys. – Between this miniseries and AV-proper, Snyder has introduced a lot of new elements in the last few months. It’s fair to consider them as one story because I doubt there are many people reading only one or the other. Let’s count the myriad plates that he has spinning: the Vassals of the Morning Star, Skinner, “Dracula”, the Soviet Union, multiple strains of Homo abominus, and now this new group called The Firsts. There are few writers that I have more confidence in than Snyder, but that’s a lot of stuff. One of the beauties of Snyder’s AV work is how accessible it is and that is threatened by the addition of characters.
3). Interesting new “team” enters the field. – Just as I say, “lots of stuff” I have to admit that I DO like the concept for this new group that Snyder has introduced here. The Firsts are kinda like a vampiric First Wives Club and they make a natural connection with the VMS given that everyone wants to get rid of Dracula. It’ll be interesting to learn more about them and the strengths and weaknesses of each.
4). This was the Soviet’s plan??? – What the hell were they thinking? It seems like their plan was to jailbreak “Dracula” with no clear plan for controlling him with the only contingency being to send in a small group of soldiers (who don’t look elite at all) to execute him if he gets out of control. And they put him on a train with lots of people to feed upon. Nice plan! How’s that working out for you???
5). What a cover! – It may seem redundant to talk about the cover given the general gushing about the art above, but man…..This is a great cover. I love the white outline. Why can’t all the covers look this nice?
Conclusion: A very solid issue that doesn’t suffer any of those “transitional issue” problems that usually plague an “issue #3 out of 5”. Glorious art.
Grade: A-
– Dean Stell
Grade
Conclusion