Bonnie and Clyde: Hollywood Reunion
For the second issue in a row, we've got a nice cover, brilliantly planned and executed, but giving away just a bit too much, making the final few pages less surprising. This issue also has a GORGEOUS and BADASS variant by Greg Capullo. I LOVE it, but it represents the arc before last. A little weird. Can we get Capullo to do the next AV miniseries? And then Frazer Irving after that? I think my life would be complete.
But for this issue we have series regular Rafael Albuquerque back, and I didn't realize how much I missed him on the previous two issues until he was back. His style really is perfect for this series. He's been able to capture the atmosphere of a variety of periods in American history, and this is no exception. But more than that, his portray of the vampires is so spot on. No, wait, but actually more than THAT is the facial expression. In the opening scene, Pearl's face says so much as it changes over the course of several panels, and to look at the detail put in here eyes and such is a sight to behold.
The end of Death Race brought some much needed movement to this series that had otherwise mostly been a LOT of setup and minor conflicts creating more setup. This arc is being touted as a game changer, so I'm ready to be on the edge of my seat, but this issue hasn't brought that yet. I can forgive it on this one though, since this issue was the setup for the arc. But Pearl and Skinner are teaming up, and that spells some epic trouble for the other vampires out there. It's interesting to see that Hobbes is out of the country, matching up with the Lord of Vampires miniseries, but what I'm more concerned with here is why Skinner Sweet is working for the Vassals of the Morning Star, and how it's changed him as Travis Kidd suggested. And also, this arc subtly promises to show us what the future holds for the love triangle between Pearl, Sweet, and Henry; though it's refreshing to finally get back to an arc that doesn't cast Sweet as the convenient all-villain. Ironically, though obviously intentional, it's the return to Hollywood that brings the reunion of Pearl and Sweet as a protagonist duo.
In Conclusion: 4/5
This is only the beginning of what's promised to be perhaps the biggest arc of American Vampire yet. I've been on the edge of my seat for a while with this series, so here's hoping it really delivers on the buildup its been building, I don't want this 'game changer' arc to turn into more setup. Not that this need to be the end-all for the series, but I'd like something really climactic.