V-Wars Free Comic Book Day Edition Review

Title:	V-Wars
Contributors:	Jonathan Maberry Alan Robinson
Publisher:	IDW
Issue #:	Free Comic Book Day Edition
Year:	2014
Pages:
Age Rating:	18 (Language, Violence, Gore, Adult Themes)
Story Grade:	D
Art Grade:	C

V-Wars, the Free Comic Book Day preview, was one of those highly anticipated issues, for me, from the Free Comic Book Day event. A new series from IDW touted as the chronicling of the first Vampire War; from the savage murders committed by "patient zero" of the V-Virus plague, to full-out battles with vampire terrorist cells. Written by New York Times bestselling and multiple Bram Stoker award winning author Jonathan Maberry.

What this book really added up to was a storyline that was little more than a mish-mash of a various rehashed plots points from the past that have already been done; and done better in my opinion. In this book:

• The source of the vampirism is a virus that can be cured and one man cares enough about the vampires that he wants to find that cure; can you say, "I am Legend" meets "World War Z". 
• A "Can't we all just get along?" theme plays out a little, but then some vampires do believe humans are nothing more than food and commit acts of terrorism; Cough, cough... a little taste of "True Blood" going on there. 
• Just about any monster movie where the government tries to come in and control the situation by killing the monster; "World War Z", "28 Weeks Later", "Return of the Living Dead", "Night of the Comet", "Day of the Dead" and so on and so forth.  
• And finally an ending that echoes a little too close with "Night of the Living Dead". 

At least there weren't any sparkling vampires that I saw.


I found nothing all to original or groundbreaking in the concepts contained in the pages of this book. In my opinion, vampires as a whole are played out. So much has been written about them, has been explored in movies, that unless you are coming up with something completely fresh, so completely original, that doesn't include sparkling, you really should find something else to write about.

To add injury to insult, the book is written very passively, as a narrative, from the main character's diary entries. That made for a very dry read in which much of the prose in the book is simply describing what is happening in the panel or discussing the protagonists feelings about things. This writing style only added salt to the sucking-chest wound left by the repetitive nature of the material.

The artwork was not memorable. It wasn't bad, just not memorable. Neutral tones throughout left the book visually flat... even the blood was a little lackluster. This style can be very impactful in a certain type of book, but not so much in this book.

This book did not make the grade for me, with a D+ grade, it failed to make it from Free Comic Day into my monthly pull box at my LCS. What really makes me sad is that this comic, before it's first issue release, has been worked into an ongoing T.V. series. Yet another addition to the oversaturation of the market and one that I am not interested in seeing translated to a show, because it has all been done before.

Until next time... Here's to staying hungry for the next 30 Days of Night.