Writer: James Tynion IV & Matthew Rosenberg
Art: Otto Schmidt, Tom Napolitano, and Guillem March
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $4.99
Release Date: November 23rd, 2022
Humanity’s final battles against King Nightwing and his vampire armies have seemingly failed on all three fronts as this week’s DC Vs. Vampires #11 by James Tynion IV and Matthew Rosenberg continues. Who lives? Who dies? As all hope is extinguished, will the surviving heroes be able to stop the extinction of the human race?
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THE DISPATCH
It looks like the separate plots are starting to gain traction and come together as this week’s DC Vs. Vampires #11 kicks off. Each story was evened out well, except the Gotham City angle. And the suspense involved in each was spot on. The plan in Australia as well as Smallville was finally starting to take shape and certainly added more depth to the story.
Nevertheless, the Gotham City story was the most confusing. It came across as trivial fighting to add action to the story for actions’ sake. I still have no idea who exactly they were fighting due to how finicky the art was, nor do I know what the objective was that Batgirl was attempting to perform. At that, the readers will grasp that Batgirl wants to take down King Dick. That’s it. And as of the last issue of DC Vs. Vampires, I thought they created lights scattered throughout the city for that means. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case compiled on top of confusion.
Thinking more about the overall story laid out in DC Vs. Vampires #11, the bigger reveal was the Australian plan, which finally began to make sense. A large focus of the issue was finally centered on Supergirl, which was well deserved. I loved the plan and I absolutely loved the Lobo angle. On a side note: I think we need more Lobo at DC right now, am I right? We have an entire Dark Crisis… but where’s Lobo? I need some more, well written Lobo!
And lastly, the most compelling story received the least amount of air time and continued to hammer home the “pee jokes”. Green Arrow and Swamp Thing infiltrating a Smallville prison has so much potential. However, that story has seemed to putter out since Oliver’s bad&$& entry into the prison camp. Nonetheless, I still need to see how these three stories fit all together. Supergirl’s story definitely does now seeing the plan into fruition. I’m assuming Supergirl will instantly pop over to Gotham for help. Yet, how is Oliver fitting into all of this? And better yet, how is all of this coming together in one more issue of DC Vs. Vampires?
ART
The colors are what stand out the most in this week’s DC Vs. Vampires #11. They’re so incredibly deep, rich, and saturate the page at points that resemble a blood-soaked background. Plus, the black coloring and shading helped decompress an exceedingly dark mood. Mixed with the deep reds, the colorant promoted an atmosphere and feeling of dread that I couldn’t shake until the very end of the issue. Hats off to this art team for creating such a rock-solid mood that anchored DC Vs. Vampires #11 exactly where it needed to be at this point of the story.
FINAL THOUGHTS
DC Vs. Vampires #11 is well-paced, cluttered with suspense, and locks in on the action. The intensity is raised and I couldn’t help but find myself more interested than the past two issues. Additionally, fans will be pleased to discover the purpose behind the Australia angle while getting some cheeky banter from Green Arrow and Cole at the Smallville Prison. However, it was the main Gotham City story that seems like action-based fluff with no real purpose or agenda.
When DC Vs. Vampires #10 came to a close, it looked like Batgirls’ plan to take down King Dick was established. Nevertheless, we saw almost no connection between the last issue and where they are now. Plus, with only one issue of DC Vs. Vampires to go, how is this creative team going to connect all these moving parts? Readers, it’s hard to tell three stories at once, give them enough air time, and connect those pieces together at just the right time. However, with one issue left, I think that should have happened by now. So, should you buy it? Well, if you’ve invested this much time and money to this point, then why the heck not? That said, DC Vs. Vampires #11 wouldn’t be the issue to make you want to go back and grab the trade. Let me know what you think, have a great week, and God Bless!