DC Vs. Vampires #11 - DC Comics

DC VS. VAMPIRES No. 11, January 2023

Potentially beguiling their audience like a circus performer with three simultaneous storylines, James Tynion IV and Matthew Rosenberg’s juggling act for Issue Eleven of “DC Vs. Vampires” certainly mixes all-out, adrenalin-fuelled action with stealthy, nerve-jangling shenanigans as Batgirl leads a seemingly suicidal assault upon Gotham City’s vampire army, Green Arrow initiates a prison break in Smallville and John Henry Irons desperately attempts to smuggle Supergirl onto an orbital rocket ship. Yet whilst some lesser writing teams might struggle to keep a perusing bibliophile hooked handling so many ‘balls in the air’ at once, “Our Finals Hours” arguably manages to do just that with admirable ease; “Sometimes you gotta learn the hard way not to mess with the main man, Martian Lady.”

Foremost of these ‘hooks’ has to be John Constantine’s supposedly doomed squad revealing themselves to King Nightwing’s blood-drinking cohorts and straightforwardly spanking them in their droves within an inch of their undead lives. This frenzied battle is absolutely spellbinding throughout, whether it be during its early stages when surprise is definitely on the fiery Bat Family’s side, or later on, when the super-heroes leap upon a number of motorcycles so as to make a headlong dash for the safety of the Huntress’ ultra-violet Bat-Signal.

Just as engaging is the admittedly much less violent and distinctly quieter infiltration of the Tamala space centre in Australia. Somewhat disconcertingly throwing the brash and ultra-loud Lobo into a supposedly covert penetration of extra-terrestrial collaborators definitely ramps up the tension to this sub-plot, with the duplicitous, gun toting Czarnian likely to let his new partners’ disguises slip at any moment and resultantly rob Humanity of its last chance to bring Kara-El before the energy-restoring light of the Earth’s sun.

Equally as impressive as this twenty-two-page periodical’s penmanship are its layouts, with Otto Schmidt, Francesco Mortarino and Pierluigi Casolino doing a first-rate job in depicting all its dynamic drama and sense-shattering shenanigans. Indeed, perhaps one of this comic’s biggest draws is the sheer sense of despair and world weariness which is persistently pencilled upon the faces and bodies of its formidably sized cast, as the few surviving meta-humans frantically fight against their insurmountable foes with little hope, but still plenty of bravado and deadly determination.

The regular cover art of "DC VS. VAMPIRES" #11 by Guillem March

Batman: The Adventures Continue Season Two #3 - DC Comics

BATMAN: THE ADVENTURES CONTINUE SEASON TWO No. 3, October 2021

Distinctly favouring the exploits of Batgirl over those of the Dark Knight, Alan Burnett and Paul Dini’s narrative for “The Hunter Or The Hunted” probably pleased the vast majority of its 27,000 readers in August 2021. Indeed, as pulse-pounding adventures go, this twenty-page periodical’s plot has plenty to enjoy from death-defying motorbike chases and close combat action sequences, through to a chillingly deadly conclusion set inside a Gotham City Police Department cell; “I never liked it myself. But after tonight, I doubt I’ll hear it again.”

In addition, the comic also demonstrates that Barbara Gordon’s “iconic” alter-ego isn’t simply one of Batman’s sidekicks, but, having exhibited some first-rate detective skills in order to locate the mass-murderer who shot her father, is also a formidable crime-fighter in her own right. As a matter of fact, one of the highlights of this book is watching the costumed vigilante both stand her ground against a similarly determined Huntress, as well as single-handedly ‘sock it’ to Jimmy “The Jazzman” Peake and his obnoxious minions.

Likewise, the creative duo’s handling of Helena Bertinelli and the cold-blooded killer’s desperate desire to have revenge upon the man who gleefully played a piano whilst her family were gunned down during a mob hit makes for an engaging character arc. Initially depicted as being willing to physically harm Batgirl so as to complete her personal mission, the anti-heroine eventually teams-up with Gordon once Peake’s goons arrive en masse at a deserted train yard. However, it is arguably during this publication’s final panels, when a heavily-disguised Huntress is shown as being Jimmy’s sole prison guard, that the calculating executioner’s true calling for ‘an eye for an eye’ are fully displayed.

Quite possibly therefore this comic’s sole disappointment comes with some of Rick Burchett’s layouts. Alongside Monica Kubina’s colours, the Eisner Award-winner’s pencilling generally does a good job of mimicking the aesthetic look of the “Batman: The Animated Series” during the early Nineties, and imbuing any fight sequences with plenty of ‘bone-breaking bops’. Yet, every now and again, such as when the Jazzman is receiving his latest tattoo, the line work appears rushed and undisciplined, as if the American artist was rushing through his drawings at breakneck speed.

Writers: Alan Burnett & Paul Dini, Artist: Rick Burchett, and Colorist: Monica Kubina

The Unexpected #4 - DC Comics

THE UNEXPECTED No. 4, November 2018

There’s arguably a hint of desperation behind both the promotion and penmanship of Issue Four of “The Unexpected”, considering that “DC Comics” declared Steve Orlando’s narrative for the twenty-page periodical involves “a race to save Gotham City from exposure to the toxic Nth metal” and it crams in no less than three of the Burbank-based publisher’s current ‘bigger named characters’ within its utterly befuddling plot. For whilst “Answers In The Sky” alludes to the Caped Crusader’s metropolis being where the membrane between our reality and the Dark Dimension is at its thinnest, the New Yorker’s treatment hardly depicts Neon the Unknown dashing anywhere in particular so as to save the “fictional American city”, nor is it ever justified why Helena Bertinelli's alter-ego knows so much about "the poisonous Nth metal." 

Indeed, the greatest danger to Batman’s home town would seemingly be the incredibly dislikeable Firebrand and her increasingly grating sense of self-righteousness; “I am [here to fight] whether I want to or not! Don’t you get it? I don’t have the luxury of that choice, because of how you people handle things!” Just how Colin Nomi contrivingly teleported himself and his fiery friend within the proximity of the Huntress is never convincingly explained, yet it soon becomes evident that it’s the very presence of Janet Fals and her disagreeable desire to battle all and sundry which is putting every Gothamite in danger, courtesy of the loose cannon’s “aggression triggering the Nth Metal isotope.”

Such constant rage genuinely becomes tediously overbearing real fast, as the former paramedic launches into Bertinelli and then later the Signal without any rational reason except perhaps to inject a bewildering script with unfounded action sequences. Admittedly, the crossbow-armed Bird of Prey does strike first and Firebrand needs to “start a fight once every twenty four hours” in order to maintain her super-human abilities. But that doesn't explain why no sooner have the pair’s differences concerning Fals bringing “a dirty bomb into a city of millions” been physically resolved than Janet, supposedly sizzled “back to my senses”, then shockingly socks an unarmed Huntress in the mouth simply for voicing her (entirely correct) opinion that the Conflict Engine-driven ‘heroine’ is “out of control.”

To make matters even more unbearable though, once a surprisingly mature and calm Duke Thomas arrives on the scene, Neon’s travelling companion goes into ‘hostile overdrive’, patronising the “kid” one moment as if the always-angry recent addition to the DC Universe is actually the one trained by Batman, and then in the next threatening to beat the costumed crime-fighter to a pulp even when he makes it clear “I’m not here to fight” by helpfully whisking the travellers off underwater to the Bat Cove.

Storytellers: Yvel Guichet, Cary Nord & Scott Hanna, and Steve Orlando

The Unexpected #3 - DC Comics

THE UNEXPECTED No. 3, October 2018

Despite containing an engaging history of Elligh, “the prince of an advanced society of creatures known as Orcks", at the very start of this twenty-page periodical, Steve Orlando’s script for Issue Three of “The Unexpected” must have utterly bewildered its audience in August 2018 with its dialogue-heavy dabblings upon Blackhawk Island and subsequent sojourn to Siberia’s secretive Monster Valley. In fact, June Robbins baffling gobbledygook concerning “a machine whose only function was to signal loved ones when you passed” and brief recollection of the Chronokinetic disaster which “all but wiped the Orcks from time” is so cumbersomely penned that it arguably would have deterred many a perusing bibliophile from traversing deeper into this comic and accompanying Neon the Unknown into the dinosaur-infested “sunken refuge one mile deep where, impossibly, it is still the Cretaceous Period.”

Unhappily however, even Colin Nomi’s adventure in the ‘Land That Time Forgot’ is rather poorly plotted, with the “infamous Burnside artist” being inexplicably ambushed by the formidably powerful Onimar Synn himself. Just how the Thanagarian tyrant happened to locate the defender of the multiverse when the molecular manipulator’s location is supposedly “silent and unknown to even its monstrous guardians” is never explained by the GLAAD Media Award-nominee, and resultantly smacks of little more than a lazy contrivance rather than the cataclysmic confrontation this comic’s dynamic cover illustration would try to suggest.

Of course, no matter how disappointing the New Yorker’s writing may debatably be, it must still have been hard for this book’s followers not to enjoy the sense-shattering surprise of a giant Brontadon momentarily flattening Neon’s startled opponent under the large reptilian beast’s massive girth; “You sicced a dinosaur on him?” Yet even this ‘highlight’, timed to perfection as both the “blind leader” and Firebrand appear to have finally been bested, is soon overshadowed by Orlando’s obsession to over complicate matters by depicting Synn waxing lyrical about “the renovation of your corpse to the Necrophists” and bewildering request for a Necropsy-chariot in order to aid “two for astral sublimation!”

Potentially this book’s biggest strength is therefore in the artwork of Cary Nord, which whilst a little inconsistent in its portrayal of the Challenger, Robbins, undoubtedly captures the pulse-pounding fisticuffs which ensues following the Nth metal-hungry dictator’s revelation to this comic’s leading cast that his bones contain “thousands of fragile souls”. Packed full of the sort of punch one might expect from a publication featuring a character who must “start fights to stay alive” and another who controls “gravity itself”, the Canadian penciler’s panels fortunately bring all the majestic might of such a formidable contest to sense-shattering life.

Storytellers: Cary Nord & Steve Orlando, and Inks: Mark Farmer & Scott Hanna