I, Vampire #1

I care nothing for vampires. They seem like an easy mystical creature to write. No exceptional hang ups – they bite, they suck, they prey, and they’re sexy. Frankly, though, I don’t find the sex appeal. I do not see how living forever could ever be something someone would want especially at the expense of other people.

And, to be brutally honest, this comic did not change my opinion on vampires.

Now, let’s take a step back for a minute (as we so often do in my reviews).

I, Vampire is probably one of the more risky ventures for DC during their relaunch. Sure, we’re still on the cusp of Twilight mania, but it has absolutely no recognizable characters to hinge itself upon. Sure, the writing makes reference to some of the superheroes, but it seems rather forced.

It’s a cool idea (despite being overly done): different factions of vampires with different ideologies on their role in the world. Obviously, our protagonist (I’m not sure if he has a name yet (Andrew?)) is on the underdog side of cohabitation while his former lover is on the side of “KILL THE HUMANS AND RULE THE WORLD”. I like how there’s this underground fight going on underneath the superheroes’ noses. But, putting vampires into a superhero world is just a little much. Luckily, they’re more of a traditional vampire who can change into all sorts of shapes.

That gets us to the writing by Joshua Fialkov. It is godawful. There’s a conversation that runs throughout the issue, but I can’t tell which conversation it’s coming from since there’s flashbacks to at least three other conversations (possibly the same one but it's so hard to tell even with the color shading). Let alone, the conversation is the typical “I love you but what are you doing” “We have to take back control” “But can’t we just go around being cool” “No, we can only be cool if we are super sexy and take over the world one bite at a time” “Well, I’m not going to let that happen” “Too bad, I’m amassing an army” “Well… fine” “Don’t worry, you look sexy when you pout” *SMEK* …Actually, I think I wrote the conversation better right there.

Now, what you should buy this issue for is the art. Andrea Sorrentino on pencils and Marcelo Maiolo on colors make a fantastic team. Plus, I think this comic is the only one with a woman on pencils for The New 52. So, show your support. But, really, it’s fantastic. Fantastic in not that sort of way where it means “great” but in that way that she constructs some really amazing, stark, imaginary imagery. This world is dark and moody with neutral tones. She can handle the vampires as humans and then as beasts equally well and there’s this frantic sense of detail. As a bonus, NEARLY EVERYONE HAS THEIR SHIRT OFF.

So, overall, the comic gets 2.5 stars instead of just 1 because of the fantastic art pulling double duty. I feel like next issue could get better without the moody me against the world set up.