Scott Snyder’s Eisner-nominated ongoing series has spawned yet another miniseries, this time tapping fan-favorite Batman artist Dustin Nguyen for artistic duties. Tired of drawing Batman, he was moved on to bat-men.
I thought it was funny.
Written by Scott Snyder
Illustrated by Dustin Nguyen
Hot on the heels of last year’s award-winning AMERICAN VAMPIRE miniseries, SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST, we return to postwar Europe and the vampire-hunting agency known as The Vassals of the Morning Star! Agent Felicia Book has had a dark life, filled with tragedy, but she has finally found peace, raising her adoptive son, Gus. But when the Vassals return for help tracking the most powerful vampire of all time, she soon learns nothing can prepare her for the threat inside The Coffin…
A great companion to the ongoing series and a perfect jumping-on point, LORD OF NIGHTMARES features amazing art by Dustin Nguyen!
Tie-in miniseries can be handled in a variety of ways, but Scott Snyder has perhaps found the perfect way to handle what can otherwise be a tricky matter. The “American Vampire” setting has grown exponentially since its early days, and could very well be a difficult place to toss a new reader into. Snyder, though, grabs the bull by the horns and brings readers, both old and new, into perhaps the most complex area of the setting, and sticks the landing perfectly. For old readers, Snyder is bringing back fan-favorite characters, but newer readers could easily be mistaken in thinking that this is the beginning of something brand new — the only bit of referencing old story material is handled in a way that could be considered no more than simple expository dialogue. Perhaps the only part of the comic that might have more weight for older readers than newer ones is the reveal of the primary antagonist of the series. While both groups may be unsurprised, longtime readers have long been asking “…well, what about… Him?” Like he did with “Survival of the Fittest,” it looks like Snyder is doing the impossible and making a true jumping-on point for his long-term series that isn’t “American Vampire: Volume One.”
Accessibility isn’t enough, though; a comic needs to be good if it wants to pull in new readers. And “Lord of Nightmares” is very, very good. Snyder’s recent works have been missing his gift for voice that earlier issues of “American Vampire” and “Detective Comics” constantly had on display, but Snyder is taking the opportunity with this issue to make sure that these muscles didn’t atrophy. We see this talent on parade the most with “Tommy Glass” — by the time Glass is finished with his initial taunts, readers will not only dislike him immensely, they will want to see him fail. Identifiability with antagonists can sometimes be a desirable trait in writing, but when we are talking about the living embodiments of evil, it is the writer’s responsibility to make sure that his or her villains aren’t just textbook “evil,” but actively disliked, and Snyder wins the gold for that in this issue.
Dustin Nguyen has primarily made his home in the Batman books these past few years, but this single issue is enough to remind any reader of versatile an artist he is. Sure, the trademark Nguyen touches are there — a unique and enjoyable style, readable and human portrayals of emotion, and top-notch visual storytelling — but what is most noticeable is what is different. A few issues from Paul Dini’s “Detective Comics” and “Streets of Gotham” runs that Nguyen illustrated were a bit darker than the others, but they were nothing compared to the horror that Nguyen unleashes in this issue. It is, to be honest, only one panel, but that one panel makes the entire issue. The chaos and terror of this first issue’s climatic moment is awe-inspiring and quite honestly unsettling. In order to sell his story, Snyder needed an artist to make that one panel as powerful as it could be, and had to put the biggest punch of the issue entirely in that artist’s hands; thankfully, that artist was Dustin Nguyen. The rest of the issue was expertly handled, too, of course, but that panel is liable to give some people nightmares — which, when you’re talking a horror comic, means Nguyen is doing everything just right.
This comic has a shining moment for both writer and artist — Tommy Glass and the horrifying climax, respectively — but those shining moments only barely eclipse the rest of this comic. Scott Snyder’s writing is on point like it has not been in quite some time — not that he has not had any good comics out, of course — and Dustin Nguyen’s art looks better than it ever has been. “Survival of the Fittest” was greeted with applause from critics, and some might even say it was even better than the main title. Could “Lord of Nightmares” go the same way? Certainly, if the other issues are just as good as this one.
Final Verdict: 9.0 – Buy it!
