Story: Rodney Barnes
Art: Jason Shawn Alexander
First Published: 2021 (TPB)
Contains spoilers
The blurb: A new horrifying chapter begins for the critically-acclaimed series from Rodney Barnes, the writer behind such hit shows as Wu-Tang: An American Saga and STARZ’s American Gods, and the artist who redefined SPAWN for a new generation, Jason Shawn Alexander!
A new vampire king has entered the game and his name is Thomas Jefferson! The third President of the United States plans to (literally) raise hell as he sets forth to craft a new America far more twisted than the one he sought to create two and a half centuries ago.
Meanwhile, young Jimmy Sangster has been bitten and is quickly becoming a bloodthirsty creature of the night. Will SeeSaw and James Sangster Sr. be able to find a way to reverse his condition in time before his soul is lost forever, or will Jimmy's newborn instincts take over and put everyone he loves in harm's way?
Collects KILLADELPHIA #13-18 and the second chapter in the werewolf tie-in story ELYSIUM GARDENS.
The Review: I like the Killadelphia series and this, for me, added a new element in. John Adams has now joined the ragtag set of heroes who are pushing against the vampire horde that is now led by his recently estranged and emancipated wife Abigail. Also into the fray steps a vampire Thomas Jefferson, who raises (zombie like) his wife and children.
The heroes are hiding from what is currently a citywide apocalypse (and there was a very nice I am Legend reference at one point within the volume, which dwelt on surviving the vampire apocalypse) but could soon consume the world. SeeSaw is looking to make Jimmy human again (he has turned one person back before) but, when it fails, he takes an astral journey round the Gods, starting with Jesus rising from the tomb and then going around various pantheons. Eventually he decides to evoke a god that believes in him and speaks to Anansi, who agrees to help him. This mystical element worked but the fact that Rodney Barnes worked on American Gods is identifiable in it. Anansi does confirm that the events are the start of the apocalypse that sits at the heart of many a religion.
The end of the volume sees the vampire heroes marching into an unwinnable showdown when they stumble across werewolves – Barnes in his afterword saying “You wanted werewolves? Well they’re here!” The volume, after this, offers a chapter of Elysium Gardens – the werewolf related spin off series. Great as always and I appreciated the way SeeSaw’s astral journey was handled, as well as the racial discussion at the heart of the series as a whole. 8 out of 10.
In Paperback @ Amazon US
In Paperback @ Amazon UK
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