Blood Oaths

Hey, we got two great comics by Scott Snyder right here! Let’s jump into ’em!

American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest #2

Felicia Book and Cash McCogan are undercover for the vampire-hunting Vassals of the Morning Star. They’re posing as wealthy Americans who are sympathetic to the Nazi cause, so they can get into the secret castle where the Nazis may have discovered a cure for vampirism. After their plane gets shot down by over-enthusiastic Germans and they barely escape death, they bluff their way in and get an audience with the very nervous scientist behind the discovery — and he slips them a note indicating that he knows who they are and he wants them to help him flee tonight. Unfortunately, there’s a little snag in those plans — a full brigade of Nazi vampires…

Verdict: Thumbs up. Lots of great stuff here, including one of Felicia’s nightmares about Skinner Sweet, an exciting plane crash, and the promise of future Nazi-stomping to come. Sean Murphy’s artwork is just astoundingly beautiful. There’s something great about a series where every issue, including spinoff miniseries, are just fantastically fun.

Detective Comics #879

A Batman comic where Batman doesn’t even appear? Where’s the fun in that? Well, we got the Joker engineering yet another escape from Arkham, utilizing secret knowledge about a doctor’s private life, along with a new delivery method for Joker venom. And we got Commissioner Gordon, still suspicious of his son, James Jr. The Commissioner goes to see his daughter, Barbara, former Batgirl, current Oracle — and he asks her to analyze a dose of James’ anti-psychotic meds to make sure it’s really doing the job. And not only are the meds NOT working, they may be the cause of an even greater disaster for Gotham City.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Immensely awesome and creepy comic — one of the creepiest I’ve seen this year, both for the Joker’s contributions — where you can’t even see his entire face, much less his insane grin — but for James and the ever-mounting evidence of his misdeeds. And again, this was a comic that didn’t even feature Batman, the supposed main character — and it’s still a perfect illustration of what this comic — DETECTIVE Comics — should be all about.

So that Scott Snyder — he’s something else, ain’t he? Might be the best unsung writer DC or Marvel have got…

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July 20, 2011 · Filed under American Vampire, Batman

3 Comments

  1. Richard Said,

    July 20, 2011 @ 3:36 pm

    I used to have a lot of respect for Tom Brevoort, but with those remarks he has finally completed the ongoing process of turning himself into a concern troll.

  2. scottslemmons Said,

    July 20, 2011 @ 4:19 pm

    I actually agree with him here. The DC Reboot is, at best, an attempt to Marvelize the DCU — and at worst, an attempt to make it more like ’90s Image Comics. Making Superman a grim, brooding character is something that’s doomed to failure.

    I also think Brevoort’s comments are fairly respectful of DC. I expect a little smacktalk from the guy running Marvel’s PR, but what he said was light on the smacktalk — and most other Internet pundits are in basic agreement with him.

  3. Richard Said,

    July 20, 2011 @ 6:41 pm

    It’s not the opinion I take issue with, it’s the context he’s created — a lot of the time his trash-talking rhetoric has been much more aggressive. To then come out with these remarks makes him seem like, I dunno, a Republican congressman “sincerely” explaining that he wishes only the best for Obama and feels genuinely sad that the White House is not succeeding in its agenda that goes against what the American people really want. That kind of thing.

    Don’t misunderstand me; right now I hold Marvel and DC both in absolutely equal disdain. He’s very possibly right about this. But he’s made himself not the right messenger to deliver that message. It would be much classier if he’d stop discussing the competition altogether, even if people bait him into doing so.