This is a vampire story loaded with growing anxiety and everything rests on the attempted resurrection of Michael Fayne. One side is desperately trying to resurrect him while the other side is desperately trying to prevent that resurrection. It's a race against time and only one side will come out victorious, but which one? This comic is a great read and keeps us in suspense until the final page which sees…to be continued. **** (9.2 rating) Read Full Review

While casually scrolling through my local comic shop I stumbled across V Wars. What drew me in was the amazing cover by Ryan Brown. I was also interested in the comic because it was a One-Shot. It's nice to pick up a self-contained story and not have to wait for 6 issues for a series to find its direction.

V-Wars provides a setting in which vampires not only exist but are plentiful and coexist with humans. Think X-Men but with Vampires as stand-ins for mutants. The story follows Luther Swann and his team as he works to prevent the resurrection of Michael Fayne, a vampire described as the Vampire God.

There is a lot of lore established through exposition and even with the heavy dialogue the comic moves at a brisk pace that's easy to follow. It's definitely a different take on the vampire mythos and blends horror with science fiction. This story doesn't feel like anything else on the shelves.

The book does have a few problems. As referenced above there's a lot of exposition and at times it feels like a bit much. I appreciate the worldbuilding but some of the dialogue felt unnatural and more for the benefit of the reader and not the characters who should already know whats going on. Although V-Wars: God of Death is a one-shot, it's also a piece of a larger narrative also written by Jonathan Maberry. I don't wanna beat the writing up too bad because it's clear that Jonathan is making a pitch for his expanded works.

The weakest aspect of the book for me was the linework. The cover is simply gorgeous but the interior pencils are pretty basic. The inks are a bit too dark which makes every page seem to bleed together. There are no standout moments visually, but Alex Milne's storytelling ability was competent enough that I was never bored while reading.

I'm not sure if I'd be interested in following V-Wars but I could definitely see the property finding an audience. There are enough hooks here to intrigue a general audience. I'm not sure if the book justifies the $4.99 cover price but its a solid read and if you're a fan of horror or Vampires you can't go wrong. At the end of the day I got what I needed out of this one. more