DC Vs. Vampires: All Out War #3 - DC Comics

DC VS. VAMPIRES: ALL OUT WAR No. 3, November 2022

Tightly focused upon “the apocalyptic” Suicide Squad’s all or nothing attempt to rescue Koriand'r from the diabolical clutches of Baron Cinder, this twenty-four page periodical’s plot must surely have had its audience riveted throughout every scene. Indeed, the notion that any one of this comic’s protagonists could suddenly meet with a grisly death at a moment’s notice repeatedly leaps out of every panel, especially when the perilous mission riskily relies upon the good will of a blood-sucking Batwoman; “I think she’s legit. But if you have doubts just incinerate her.”

Equally as terrifying is Alex Paknadel and Matthew Rosenberg’s ability to imbue the vampire’s medieval-looking fortress with a genuine creepy vibe, which arguably appears able to sends shivers down any reader’s spine the moment Deathstroke, Azrael and Kate Kane approach its guarded gates through a heavy sea of blood-splattered mist. This ‘Hammer House of Horror’ ambience really adds to the storytelling, as it repeatedly hints at the possibility of a gory demise occurring just around every corner. In fact, the perpetual suspense is so well-penned that it debatably almost comes as a relief when one of the party is finally slain through dark witchcraft.

Artists Pasquale Qualano and Nicola Righi must also take a well-deserved bow for their contribution to this publication’s success, as their sombre-coloured layouts, occasionally made all the more unnerving with a garish splash of red pigmentation, are truly mesmerising. Moreover, the duo are responsible for possibly this book’s biggest highlight when they depict a formidably brutal Bane squashing a load of hapless thralls beneath the castle’s main door and then go on a ferocious rampage alongside “one of Gotham’s daughters” up the fortification’s inner stairwell.

Just as disconcerting is Emma Vieceli’s unfairly labelled “backup” story “Dark Birth”. Prodigiously pencilled by Haining, this deeply disturbing tale of Dick Grayson being treacherously ensnared by his own half-sister, Melinda Zucco, into Bludhaven’s vampire civil war is desperately sad, due to the former Robin bravely facing an entire cartel of the Undead single-handedly and knowing full well that Barbara Gordon, the Teen Titans nor even Batman will be able to save him from a truly tragic fate.

The regular cover art of "DC VS. VAMPIRES: ALL OUT WAR" #3 by Alan Quah