Author: Matthew Rosenberg
Illustrator: Otto Schmidt
First Published: 2025 (THB)
Contains spoilers
The Blurb: The smash-hit Elseworlds series returns, as the fight between heroes-turned-vampires and what’s left of humanity goes global!
DC vs. Vampires was just the beginning! The sequel has arrived, and the team of writer Matthew Rosenberg and artist Otto Schmidt return as a new Ice Age dawns.
It’s the dead of winter, and any hope for a fragile truce between the Green Arrow-led human heroes and vampire queen Barbara Gordon’s army has been dashed by Damian Wayne and his guerrilla fighters. He’s the only one fighting back against the bloodthirsty hordes, leaving Green Arrow with a choice: Does he stand and fight, or sacrifice the boy in the name of peace?
This volume collects DC vs. Vampires: World War V #1-6, the first half of the bloody battle.
The review: Time to take a quick break from Marvel’s Blood Hunt event, with the next volume in DC’s vampire event (which started with DC Vs Vampires). There is often a lot of fan rivalry between the two comic book giants, rivalry that seems less apparent in the properties themselves and which, for me, is unnecessary as they both have their positive points and if I have a preference for one of them it does not mean that I can't enjoy the other. When it comes to the two events, however, one thing I prefer about the DC series is the long-term impact of the uprising. Where Blood War came and went in one volume and the other volumes showed events tied to a variety of heroes (and villains) during that point, the DC property, being an Elseworlds and therefore out of main continuity, has long lasting and far-reaching impacts.
By this volume humanity is scattered and endangered, the vampires are looking to create quantities of synthetic blood (though not used exclusively, it seems and so humans may still be farmed) and a fragile truce has been entered into, However the vampiric Damian Wayne refuses to bow the knee to the Vampire Queen – Barbara Gordon – and is attacking with impunity and has the audacity to try and assassinate the Queen. Elsewhere a baby is born of two vampires and the volume follows the father, Mr Miracle, trying to keep her alive, whilst a prophecy seems to surround her. Batman (killed early on in the vampire uprising) seems to return, though it is not who you might think in the cowl. Alfred has become a Green Lantern, but he is in desperate need of training and confidence and Darkseid makes his appearance.
It was the utter despair, the inherent attempt to make this a dark, gritty story that is unlikely to have any bright conclusion, which makes this for me. By the end of the first volume of Blood War, the danger had passed and whilst there were continuity ramifications, for the main things returned to normal. We got the destination in a volume, the other volumes represent the journey. With DC the destination is far off and unknown. 8 out of 10.
In Hardback @ Amazon US
In Hardback @ Amazon UK
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