DC Vs. Vampires: All Out War #5 - DC Comics

DC VS. VAMPIRES: ALL OUT WAR No. 5, January 2023

Recited as if taken from a veteran soldier’s war journal, Alex Paknadel and Matthew Rosenberg’s scintillating script for Issue Five of “DC Verses Vampires: All Out War” must surely have hooked its audience straight from the start with Deathstroke’s thoughts and actions concerning the mercenary’s past few days. For whilst Slade Wilson’s ruminations as to Azrael’s gratuitous death at the hands of some bloody thirsty vampires eventually gives way to a more straightforward way of storytelling, the flashback sequence definitely delivers a gut-wrenching message as to just why his team’s surviving members are so disheartened despite miraculously reaching the Flash Museum in Central City.

Furthermore, there’s plenty for this twenty-four-page publication’s plot to hold the attention once Marv Wolfman’s co-creation has miserably failed in his plan to resurrect the vampiric Weather Wizard, as everything shifts focus upon “a Marvel Family showdown at the end of the world”. Indeed, perhaps this comic’s biggest draw is the titanic tussle between a deranged Billy Batson and his sister, Mary Bromfield, as the two “gods” go toe-to-toe above the Missouri metropolis; “I don’t recognise you at all. Which is fine, actually… It makes this easier.”

Similarly as sensational are the layouts by Pasquale Qualano, Francesco Mortarino and Nicola Righi, which persistently assault the senses with their ferociously fast fisticuffs and sense-shattering scarlet-hued panels. Together, this creative team genuinely provide Shazam with a mind-blowing entrance worthy of one who wields “the powers of superhuman strength, speed, flight, and other abilities.” In addition, the trio repeatedly remind the reader as to the grisly nature of the planet surrounding the central cast, with even little details like a trail of melting snow or some graffiti scrawled over Barry Allen’s beheaded stone statue giving the impression that they’re actually made out of blood.

Rounding off this periodical in a thoroughly enjoyable way is the sadly short-lived yarn "Dead Cities" by Danny Lore and Haining, which enthrallingly explores what happens to a super-hero who is symbiotically linked with the city he's in – and that municipal has been overrun by the living dead. Half man and half Nosferatu, Jack Hawksmoor’s attempt to assassinate his team’s corrupted leader, Jenny Sparks, provides an intriguing insight into just how The Authority has fared during the dark days of the (new) Vampire King’s reign.

The regular cover art of "DC VS. VAMPIRES: ALL OUT WAR" #5 by Alan Quah