DC vs. Vampires: All-Out War #5 Preview

[Hypo]

DC vs. Vampires: All-Out War #5 Preview
Writers: Alex Paknadel & Matthew Rosenberg
Artists: Pasquale Qualano & Francesco Mortarino

[Frontier]

Lot of Mary Marvel paneltime lately. I approve .

[Nullviahomo]

Was that a Moon Knight homage justifying Azrael's face-heel-face turn? Nice.

So, they're going to dump Weather Wizard's parts into the Pit and just see what happens? Billy and The Baron (who I'm still half convinced is going to turn out to be a different solar powered superman) will arrive, and something entirely left-field will occur.

It would be entirely in keeping with this series' style and would tickle me no end if we found out where the Wally West Flash and the other speed-force empowered metas had been while their world went to shit. Extra credit if the world ends up being saved due to the intervention of a pissed-off Zoom or Reverse Flash.

Or, of course, the semi-obvious twist that it's not Weather Wizard who ends up in the Pit and Midnighter or Mary get an unexpected present.

[Zagre]

I love weird combinations of lore so I really liked when, in the backup

spoilers:

Jack Hawksmoor and Jenny Sparks turn into vampires, not because they've been bitten or anything, but because cities are getting inhabited by vampires and vampires are winning the war to getting to keep the world respectively

end of spoilers

[Nullviahomo]

Regarding the back-up, didn't love it.

Always happy to see the Authority turn up, of course, but not like that. In no particular order...

If you're going to have The Authority show up in an apocalyptic situation, have The f#&$£#g Authority turn up, not as whiny little c-listers looking for small victories, but as the bastards who don't understand the concept of 'too far' and will go straight for the heart of the problem with balled fists and zero restraint.

I guess having The Engineer and The Doctor involved would have meant too much Worfing. Either of them could have shut the vampires down with minimal effort, and that's before we even consider what The Carrier and its Doors could do to an atmospheric dust cloud.

WTF, Apollo? Apart from it scotching my theory (already shot in the junk by the cover to Issue 6) that Baron Cinder was going to turn out to be Midnighter's favourite not-Superman, this is a guy whose eyebeams are solid solar lasers. He gives off sunlight just by standing there. Him going out like that was... disappointing.

Jack Hawksmoor's powers don't actually work like that, but I'll allow it for the dramatic twist. Jenny Sparks' powers really, really, really don't work like that. Why on earth would the Spirit of the 20th Century be resurrected as a fang-banger due to a vampire takeover in the 21st? If anyone was going to flip due to the increase in vampire numbers it was Jenny Quantum, but she seems fine.

Other than that, I'm loving the way each issue builds up a super-important macguffin only to drop it like a soggy biscuit and move on to the next thing. King Dick's victory really has produced an absolute shithole of a world where nothing ever goes right.

Next Issue - Despairing Mary Marvel takes out her emotions on Baron Cinder's face. Nice!

[Zagre]

WTF, Apollo? Apart from it scotching my theory (already shot in the junk by the cover to Issue 6) that Baron Cinder was going to turn out to be Midnighter's favourite not-Superman, this is a guy whose eyebeams are solid solar lasers. He gives off sunlight just by standing there. Him going out like that was... disappointing.

Jack Hawksmoor's powers don't actually work like that, but I'll allow it for the dramatic twist. Jenny Sparks' powers really, really, really don't work like that. Why on earth would the Spirit of the 20th Century be resurrected as a fang-banger due to a vampire takeover in the 21st? If anyone was going to flip due to the increase in vampire numbers it was Jenny Quantum, but she seems fine.

spoilers:

I can somewhat understand the (metatextual) reason of why Jenny was used this way. If Jenny Quantum is the one that is either human or vampire, then you're kidna sorta giving away your ending and I can understand they didn't want to use vampire Jenny Quantum, kill her, and then invent an original successor so they basically bended the rules a little. I agree about Apollo though, I hope they make use of the somewhat ambiguous language there and he isn't really dead

end of spoilers

Next Issue - Despairing Mary Marvel takes out her emotions on Baron Cinder's face. Nice!

spoilers:

That scene of her and Billy in their human (well, y'know) forms was haunting in the best way possible. I'm overall very pleased with the writing she's been getting in this

end of spoilers

[lefthanded]

Mary's story has been the one highlight in an otherwise baffling series where the storytelling seem to follow the "and then" style of storytelling instead of cause and effect.

Both this series and the main series seems to treat Vampirism as a switch that can be flipped. Vampires can control their actions, but also not control it. Why is the Baron completely on the side of the vampires, when other vampires, can switch between being on the side of humans if the plot dictates it?

It would be like if over in DCeased, they kept having some anti-life zombies can choose to be helpful while others are completely not in control.

It should be consistently an all or nothing thing instead of what they are doing here with the vampires.

[Nullviahomo]

Yeah, it's been inconsistent and weird. Some (like, 99% of) characters get turned and immediately become slaves to King Dick's will. Whoever they were before they turned, they're now all-in on the Vampire Supremacy trip and see the living as nothing more than walking blood-bags that they may or may not retain residual fondness for.

Some, like Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, etc, absolutely revel in their new state and treat Nightwing like a feudal monarch. Others, like Baron Cinder and The Question, see vampirism as a curse but are still void of any residual loyalty to humanity. Then you've got vampires like Weather Wizard who do their jobs for the new regime but would jump at the chance to be human again.

OTOH, there's Damian, who for no explained in-story reason remained completely himself, and there's Batwoman, who Damian was able to break out of her vampire hunger and restore a conscience to by means as yet unknown. Their freedom from default vampire behaviour could be a plot point that impacts the conclusion (except they're leaving it damned late) if it wasn't for Punchline, who for no apparent reason acts like King Dick is just a bigger crime-boss who her organisation has to respect but owes zero institutional loyalty to.

It's a mess. Thankfully the humour and wackiness of DCVV:AAW makes this series an enjoyable mess, unlike the main series, which is just an internally inconsistent shambles.

[Nullviahomo]

Duh!

It's just been pointed out to me that Azrael's Face/Heel/Face turn at the start of this issue would have been Deadman jumping into his body as part of Constantine's secret contingency plan to stop any of the team turning.

Totally forgot about that.