DC Vs. Vampires #2

Written by: James Tynion IV & Matthew Rosenberg

Art, Colour and Main Cover by: Otto Schmidt

Letters by: Tom Napolitano

Variant Cover by: Francesco Mattina

Edited by: Ben Abernathy

Plot:

After the first issue revealed some shocking truths about the oncoming war between humans, heroes and vampires, Batman has gathered a meeting of his closest allies, those he has trained himself. He reveals to them the things he has learned from the letter left to him, written by Andrew Bennett, the Vampire.

Batman also reveals the reasoning behind meeting in the sun room of the Wayne manor rather than the cave, and why Alfred insists everyone take a hot drink of tea or cocoa. Bruce trusts his family, but he’s smart enough to know when to take precautions. The drinks are made with holy water and luckily, they all passed the test.

Meanwhile, Green Arrow appears to be on a hunt of his own, as he tracks down and kills another vamped out super-villain. Despite all of this though, the vampires are still managing to sneak under their radar one way or another, and that does not bode well for some, who find themselves in serious trouble that they cannot and do not, escape.

Art:

Otto Schmidt is one of my favourite artists in comics, with his awesomely unique character designs and the style in which he brings the story to life.

One of my favourite parts of this issue was seeing Oliver kill a vampire, because the art brings forth the pacing and the action of the scene and makes Oli look like the badass he is. His serious nature in this story is brought forth by the art, which portrays him taking control of a situation and taking action to be the hero he is meant to be and Otto is the artist to properly show the audience that side of Green Arrow.

Story

Despite everything that’s happened in these 2 issues, it still feels like we’re fairly far away from the big endgame. Part of me wants to see this large scale war begin and have the heroes struggle through it, rather than the slow build that leads to them stopping the war (I don’t know if that’s what happens, that’s just what it feels like at this moment). The story is well thought out, and it leaves a real tension in the reader, but at the same time, a lot of it feels somewhat obvious such as the ending to this issue, which I will not spoil.

Conclusion

I imagine it’s hard to tell a story and keep it secretive in a single issue, and this is why I’m not a comic writer, but I feel like we’re running into too many cliche’s that can be easily avoided with some further planning, but we’ll see. I am enjoying the concept as a whole, and I eagerly await to see what happens next.