This week in “American Vampire” the political statements of ‘The Blacklist’ take a backseat to character development. Is that more personal touch what fans claim this book has been missing?
Written by Scott Snyder
Illustrated by Rafael Albuquerque
Hunting vampires is thirsty work, but Skinner and Pearl must control their bloodlust as they cross more names off the vampire blacklist. Meanwhile, Henry’s life hangs in the balance! The next AMERICAN VAMPIRE epic continues in “The Blacklist” part three.
This title has been suffering for a few months. There has been a lot of talk online about the current ongoing story being somewhat of a let down. Part of that is probably due to the loss of a tight thematic guidance previous arcs possesed in spades. “American Vampire” has been a western, a war story, and a 1950s rockabilly homage. The problem with ‘The Black List’ is that this story does not know what it wants to be. At issue #30, a good description for ‘The Blacklist’ would be 1950s McCarthism James Bond Vampires.
In terms of plot the story plods along. Three issues in and this storyline has not really hit any sort of high points or climax, insofar as the McCarthy Hollywood Undead premise. Where the main plot of this arc is concerned, this is just another issue of Pearl and Skinner killing more vampires and vampire sympathizers. Lots of action, lots of gunplay, and lots of claws. The pace at which Skinner and Pearl can kill of other vampires is pretty ridiculous, and leaves no tension or sense of danger. The only interesting point where this story shines is the B-Story plot, where there is a very huge predictable moment that I will not spoil.
Writing wise, Snyder does an OK job with this issue. The first few pages tug on your heart strings with a flashback of Pearl and Henry moving in together shortly after Pearl’s transformation. An excellent transition occurs where Snyder uses Henry’s music as a hook for Pearl’s love for her husband, and every other character who has met the man. The emotional connection is stressed- and then lessened by several pages of random car explosions, gun fights and window smashing. It would have been far more effective for Henry’s song lyrics to play throughout the images of Pearl and Skinner tracking down the vampires who almost killed Henry. By splitting the issue into flashback and current plot, a stark contrast is created that hurts the flow of the story. The flow of dialogue is nonexistent. Snyder has characters of completly divergent personalities fill in each other’s thoughts, and it just doesn’t feel right. It is true that both Pearl and Skinner are the same breed of vampire, but this doesn’t mean that their actions and speech need to be totally identical. Some of the best moments of this series have come from the strict differences between the two main American vampires, and this issue ignores those differences completly, in favor of by the beats soap opera twists.
No complaints in the art department. Rafael Albuquerque continues to create yet another beautiful issue of “American Vampire.” This man captures emotion exquisitly- specifically where Skinner Sweet uses his cowboy outlaw gunplay skills. Albuquerque can also shift instantly to action scenes that flow and and build within individual pages. The last few pages of this issue have enough sexuality to fill a years worth of romance movies, and build to emotional impact that will smack the reader in the face. The Rafael Albuquerque touch is there. The lines are crisp, strong, and the storytelling is strong enough that the reader does not have to flip back and forth to figure out what is going on.
The basic problem of this issue is that it does not stand on its own. This is a pure case of writing for the trade. If ‘The Blacklist’ and ‘Lord of Nightmares’ are collected together in a huge hardback like the WWII story and ‘Survial of the Fittest’ were, then it would be a good buy. Month by month though? This just feels like paying $2.99 to be strung along month by month. Hopefully this story will wrap up soon and we can get “American Vampire” in the 1960s.
Final Verdict: 5.8 – Browse for the pretty pictures and wait for the trade.
