REVIEW: ‘DC Vs Vampires,’ Issue #6

DC Vs Vampires #6 is written by James Tynion IV and Matthew Rosenberg, illustrated and colored by Otto Schmidt, Simone Di Meo,  Daniele Di Niculo, and Rex Lokus, and lettered by Tom Napolitano. It’s published by DC Comics. After the vampire legions attacked Green Arrow and Batman in the Batcave, the Emerald Archer and the Dark Knight regroup with their allies in a safe house, but a vampiric Wonder Woman and Hal Jordan are hot on their heels. Meanwhile, Batgirl and the Suicide Squad discover a horrifying secret about who the “vampire king” infecting the DC Universe truly is.

This issue marks the series’ halfway point, and the creative team has decided to emotionally pummel its audience, which is great from a storytelling perspective. In the last issue, I mentioned my worries that this series was essentially going to boil down to Batman and his allies against the vampire apocalypse, but thankfully Tynion and Rosenberg aren’t interested in playing that game. They throw twist after twist at the reader, leading to a pair of moments that will have jaws hitting the floor and significantly raise the stakes in a way they haven’t been seen since DCeased. Be warned, though; if you have a favorite Robin, Batgirl, or Batman villain, chances are they won’t make it out alive.

Schmidt continues to turn in some action-packed and supremely bloody art, especially when it comes to the reveal of the Vampire King. Characters have their limbs sliced off, are immolated when they’re exposed to the sun, and a character has a hand punched through their chest – with blood spraying everywhere, which gives a macabre new meaning to the term “splash page.” As if to represent the turning of the heroes’ fortunes, the colorists start off with a lighter palette and then slowly grow darker as the bodies stack up with different shades of red representing the blood that’s being spilled.

Also along for the illustration ride are Di Meo and DiNiculo, with the latter illustrating the last two pages of the series. Di Meo mainly sticks to the sequences featuring Batgirl and the Suicide Squad, which continue to move with a fluid grace that give off the hint of an animated series. There’s also a hilarious moment where Harley Quinn claims that Captain Boomerang is a vampire…and he really isn’t. These sequences also have a reddish tint to them, which only hints at the horrors to come. And while I enjoy DiNiculo’s artwork, the last two pages feel somewhat out of place with the rest of the issue. If he returns for future issues, I hope he either gets to illustrate more of the book or a certain sequence – two pages isn’t enough.

DC Vs Vampires #6 brings the series to its darkest point yet, as the Vampire King stands revealed and the heroes’ forces start to dwindle. If the next six issues continue this momentum, this could go down as one of the more well-constructed Elseworlds stories that DC’s put out in a long time.

DC Vs Vampires #6 is available wherever comics are sold.