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CBR reviews the week’s biggest comics, including Batman: The Long Halloween Special, The Darkhold: Blade, DC vs. Vampires, Task Force Z and Inferno.
Each week, CBR has your guide to navigating Wednesday’s new and recent comic releases, specials, collected editions and reissues, and we’re committed to helping you choose those that are worth your hard-earned cash. It’s a little slice of CBR we like to call Major Issues.
If you feel so inclined, you can buy our recommendations directly on comiXology with the links provided. We’ll even supply links to the books we’re not so hot on, just in case you don’t want to take our word for it. Don’t forget to let us know what you think of the books this week in the comments! And as always, SPOILERS AHEAD!
BATMAN: THE LONG HALLOWEEN SPECIAL #1 (DC)
COMIXOLOGY
Decades after its initial release, Batman: The Long Halloween still stands as one of the most celebrated Batman stories of all time. And now, Loeb and Sale have returned to the world of The Long Halloween and its sequel, Batman: Dark Victory, with Brennan Wagner and Richard Starkings, for the epilogue Batman: The Long Halloween Special.
Taking place after The Long Halloween and Dark Victory, this follow-up sees Batman and Two-Face team up to take on the resurgent threat of the Calendar Man. With a strong straightforward plot and Sale’s signature style, this epilogue is deeply enjoyable but not essential. Although a few of Sale’s drawings take a step too far into abstraction, this follow-up proves that The Long Halloween team hasn’t lost its charm and makes a convincing case for another sequel.
THE DARKHOLD: BLADE #1 (MARVEL)
COMIXOLOGY
Marvel’s ongoing Darkhold event has quickly morphed into an exercise in offering grim visions from around the Marvel Multiverse like a particularly dark What If… story. With Darkhold: Blade #1, Daniel Kibblesmith, Federico Sabbatini, Rico Renzi and Clayton Cowles turn Marvel’s most famous vampire hunter into the scariest part of a vampire apocalypse.
In a world where a blood god wiped out most of the world’s population and turns the rest into vampires, this world’s last heroes try to fix their world as Blade’s anti-vampire crusade turns into a slaughter. While the kinetic, cartoony art doesn’t quite match the grim tone of the story, it suits the action scenes well. With a nice mix of surviving Marvel heroes, this special serves up a solid tale from one of the darker corners of the Marvel Multiverse.
DC VS VAMPIRES #1 (DC)
COMIXOLOGY
While DC never had vampires as prominent as Blade or Marvel’s Dracula, the DC Universe has plenty of its own creatures of the night. And in James Tynion IV, Matthew Rosenberg, Otto Schmidt and Tom Napolitano’s DC vs. Vampires #1, the residents of the DC Universe start learning just how dangerous vampires can be. After the forgotten heroic vampire Andrew Bennett gets wind f an impending attack, he turns to the Justice League, only to realize that he’s not the only vampire in the Hall of Justice.
With comics like DCeased and Injustice, the end of the DC Universe has become well-trodden territory. However, DC vs. Vampires has a sense of creeping terror that effectively builds throughout the issue. Schmidt is a big part of that equation, especially with a harrowing flashback sequence colored with a blood-red ink wash. Between that and the genuinely unsettling reveal of a vampirized hero, this is a solid, spooky debut.
TASK FORCE Z #1 (DC)
COMIXOLOGY
Although the Red Hood, zombies and the Suicide Squad have all been part of the DC Universe for decades, Task Force Z #1 brings them all together for the first time. Matthew Rosenberg, Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, Adriano Lucas and Rob Leigh’s debut issue is a solid, by-the-numbers debut that establishes why and how Red Hood is leading a team of zombie Batman villains like the undead Bane and Man-Bat.
Although this issue spends some time filling out the world around this team, Task Force Z works best when its titular monsters are rampaging. The art team strikes the right balance with a solid mix of bloody superhero action and horror before ending in a genuinely unsettling moment.
INFERNO #2 (MARVEL)
COMIXOLOGY
With Inferno #2, Jonathan Hickman, Stefano Caselli, David Curiel and VC’s Joe Sabino fan the embers threatening the mutant nation Krakoa into a full-fledged flame. As Marvel’s mutant leaders grapple with the return of the precognitive Destiny, greater existential threats loom on the horizon as the mutants turn to a veteran X-Man.
While Inferno #2 is a strong story in its own right, the major events of this issue recontextualize the events of several ongoing X-Men titles, turning several disparate threads into a robust, ambitious plot. Much of this issue is told through pages of conversation and flashbacks, but Caselli and Curiel deliver strong work here with eye-catching pages that effectively build the drama of the story and raise its impossibly high stakes. While the era of Hickman as the X-Men’s chief mastermind is almost over, this story serves as one last example of the character-driven, intricately-plotted stories that defined it.
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