Is this what it's like to be in a relationship that’s lost its spark? Like, the first few months were really exciting, but eventually, everything settled into a predictable routine. Both of you try to work on the relationship, hoping to recapture that initial attraction, and you might even discover something that spices things up. But the unspoken question remains in your mind — is this the start of something new, or do I have to countdown the moments until we’re back to the predictable staleness?
Yeah, I think that’s an apt summary of my feelings toward the DC vs Vampires franchise.
After the last few issues, I was beginning to dread having to review this series. The plot felt unnecessarily long and dragged out, the art didn’t invoke the same feeling of terror that it once did, and the recently announced special did nothing to quell my belief that DC was milking this cow — or sucking its blood, to be more on-brand — until it ended up dry and desiccated. However, despite the flaws in DC vs Vampires: World War V #5, I found myself actually intrigued to know where the story was going.
Last time, vampire brat Damian Wayne was seemingly going to be on the receiving end of more than a few pointy things. However, he ends up being used as a Trojan Horse to get the humans into Gotham…which is a problem for John Constantine as he was just in the middle of negotiating a trade with the vampire top brass using Damian as collateral. The results of both sub-plots are extremely interesting and could take this story into interesting new territory. However, historically, this franchise hasn’t been great with this sort of plot twist as a whole, so my optimism is limited.
We also see some movement on the Miracle Baby plot, as we see Barda has indeed become a vampire after her one-night stand with Scott (considering she was part of the resistance in the last series, her actions seem extremely callous). However, it turns out mommy and daddy have different ideas about parenting their child, which involves Barda beating up anyone who tries to take her, be they vampire or not (and in the case of Scott, both). While this sub-plot wasn’t as action heavy, besides the Barda beatings, it is certainly set to have a rather explosive continuation in the next issue.
Score: 7.5/10
Backup: Keep the Message, Part 2
Black Lightning’s search for his family continues. I will say it was actually nice to get a happy ending in one of these stories, even though it was only narratively satisfactory and not quite a happy ending for the characters. The story also loses points for using a vampire Geo-Force, who was actually shown to be active and about as a human in the Bat-Mite backup. So one of these ain’t canon, and the fact that this is happening in back-to-back backups of the same series suggests a serious lack of editorial oversight.
Score: 8/10
Recommended If
- You’ve been on this ride for a while
- You like stories with bittersweet endings
- Plot Progression! Finally!!!
Overall
DC vs Vampires: World War V #5 moves the plot forward a decent bit, bringing multiple sub-plots together so that the narrative doesn’t feel as scattershot. However, it is hard to feel too excited about how things will play out, having seen lackluster payoffs far too often when it comes to this series. The backup featuring Black Lightning was a neat little delight that ended satisfactorily, so maybe I can hope.
Score: 7.5/10