Last Wednesday, in recognition of the second full week of DC Comics’ New 52 promotion, I recommended the seven new DC titles that I thought were most likely to be worthy of your attention and your money sight unseen. Now that we’ve had a week to digest them, the question is how did I do? I think it’s safe to characterize the entire promotion as a monster success for DC at least in terms of PR for month one: sellouts across the line, reprints on the way and copies being ordered in the six figure range. Overall, I can honestly say the quality of the actual product has been stronger than I was expecting. The books I personally recommended for week three in order of expected quality were as follows: Batman, Wonder Woman, Nightwing, Green Lantern Corps, DC Universe Presents: Deadman, Red Hood and the Outlaws and Catwoman.

So how were they in reality?

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Last Wednesday, in recognition of the second full week of DC Comics’ New 52 promotion, I recommended the five new DC titles that I thought were most likely to be worthy of your attention and your money sight unseen. Now that we’ve had a week to digest them, the question is how did I do? I think it’s safe to characterize the entire promotion as a monster success for DC at least in terms of PR for month one: tons of sellouts, reprints and series being ordered in the six figures. Overall, I can honestly say the quality of the actual product has been stronger than I was expecting. The books I personally recommended for week two in order of expected quality were as follows: Batwoman, Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E., Green Lantern, Batman and Robin, Deathstroke, and Superboy. So how were they in reality?
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So tonight’s the night. At midnight, DC Comics releases Flashpoint #5 and Justice League #1 and the DC Universe as we’ve known it will be washed away to some currently unknown extent and replaced by 52 new titles; many with brand new continuity.

I don’t know what to think about all of this. I’m excited to see what DC has up its sleeves, but I’m sad to know some piece of this universe I’ve loved for twenty years can never really ever quite be the same again. I have a great deal of distrust for DC publisher Dan Didio and his personal tastes. I know they don’t align with mine. But I love the grand ambition behind all of this. This is a giant gamble and I dig that.

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This article has been planned since shortly after MLD ran the State of the X-Men piece back in November. The delay in the post has been directly tied to the delay in DC Comics publishing their second new high profile Batman title, David Finch’s Batman: The Dark Knight, which was originally due to ship November 24. Well Batman: The Dark Knight #1 is supposedly shipping this week (though I’ll believe it when I see it), so this seems like as good a time as any to assess the state of the Batmen Family.

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Vertigo’s American Vampire marks Stephen King’s first writing work in comic books ever. Several of his stories have been adapted to or expanded upon in the medium, but apparently he’s never written any of those stories. Most interesing of all (to me at least), American Vampire isn’t even a King property. Instead it is a property developed by writer Scott Snyder.

American Vampire follows the adventures of this continent’s first vampire, Skinner Sweet, and each issue is divided into two stories. One of which is written by Snyder and one written by King.

Sweet, as the first vampire created in the United States, represents a step forward in terms of evolution into apparently a whole new species. What exactly that means we have yet to be told specifically. In fact, in a bit of meta-text, Sweet specifies in a note in issue 2 that he doesn’t want to ruin that surprise.

What we do know is that Sweet can travel in the daylight with no problem and survive for years underwater. The book at least suggests that maybe other vampires would not have survived such a flood.

Snyder’s story takes up the first half of the book and features Sweet’s
Adventures in Hollywood in 1925. His character during this era is creepy but his true nature remains unclear. Some of his actions seem typical of an anti-hero.

The second half of the book features King telling Sweet’s secret origin as an outlaw in the old West. During that era Sweet is an unrepetant outlaw. There seems to be nothing redeemable about him. Which makes some of his actions in 1925 more interesting.

We’ll have to see where it all goes.

The art by Rafael Albuquerque ranges from cartoony to having a sort-of-painted feel. Some pages are stonger than others, but I definitely like it overall.

Both stories are oddly compelling. They certainly strive to make vampires more terrifying than the way popular culture has portrayed them in recent years. (Twilight, I’m looking right at you.) The book certainly has more in common with 30 Days of Night than New Moon.

The key problem is something that has been debated for years: Can comics even be scary? While an enjoyable read, American Vampires suggests no. It is not scary, at least not in the way a film or a novel can be… even when written by inarguably the most successful horror writer of the last 30 years.