When I go to Free Comic Book Day I always purchase a few items so as not to look like a troll just grabbing free stuff and hauling ass out the door. I had nothing in mind to purchase so I perused the racks for something that looked good to try. I noticed a copy of V Wars #1 and bought it on an impulse, figuring that between the free issue 0 and the $3.99 issue 1, I may get a decent idea of what this title was all about.
The writer for V Wars is Jonathan Maberry. He is a veteran comics writer and also has authored numerous prose novels, many in the horror genre. I have heard him interviewed on several radio programs about folklore and legendary creatures. He is a knowledgeable dude in these areas.
As you may decipher by the title of this series, the V in the name is for Vampire Wars. The plot of the story is pretty much a rip off of World War Z, only substituting vampires for the zombies. VERY similar story.
The story is that sometime in the last year as polar ice was melting, a disease was released from the formerly frozen water. This triggered something in certain peoples dna that activated a gene that caused them to become vampires. Evidently everyone carries this gene and it could activate at any time.
Luther Swann is the protagonist in our story. He is a professor of folklore and the worlds foremost expert on vampires. He begins as a police consultant brought in to help because of his background in folklore and is later moved up to assist the federal government and actually becomes a presidential advisor for vampires.
Over a period of time many different types of vampires begin to appear. Some look human, some look like monsters, some just like to party and get drunk, some want to be left alone, and some are bloodthirsty killers. The normal humans are at war with the vampires and Luther Swann is attached to a special ops unit that is in the middle of the action, and he doesn't like it. Luther believes there can be a peaceful resolution to the war if the parties involved would be willing to talk things out and come up with alternatives to killing each other.
As the 0 issue winds down Luther experiences a personal tragedy that really was not that surprising. I saw it coming from a mile away, but it did still advance the story along. Issue 1 starts out with Luther meeting with the speaker of the house. The speaker is having a press conference where he is going to announce the pursuit of peace. He feels that human and vampire alike are all citizens of this world, and deserve a chance to live. These words aren't even all the way out of his mouth when a bullet goes through his eye and ends his life. Vampires are blamed for the assassination, but did they do the deed? You will have to read the book to discover this for yourself. All out war is declared on the vampires and the poop really hits the fan.
The plot of the series is of course very derivative, and the stories contained in these two issues are rather formulaic. I was able to guess much of what would happen before it happened.Yet, that doesn't mean it's all bad. I actually enjoyed the story. It was executed and written in fine fashion. Maberry knows what he is doing. The script was tight and kept me engaged throughout. There are prose pages included at the rear of the book along with maps detailing the areas of the world where the outbreaks are located. These are nice extras that add an epic feel to the whole package.
The art is by Alan Robinson and he does a fine job. Workable art with good storytelling. Nothing fancy or jaw dropping, just good solid artwork. The only part of the art that didn't do it for me was the coloring. The colors seemed rather flat to me. I'm sure this was done on purpose due to the post catastrophic setting of the story, but I personally would have preferred a little color pop.
Overall these 2 issues lay a nice groundwork for the V Wars series. This was announced as an ongoing series from IDW and I think it has the potential to be very good. I plan on continuing to follow this series for the next few issues to see where it goes. Nice work, Free Comic Book Day, you got me interested in a new book!
Captain Creepy gives V Wars issues #0 and #1 a rating of 8 out of 10. Cool stuff. Creepy out.
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