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lanternatomika's review
2.0
Ooh boy, the second leg of the American Vampire story goes places that I wasn't expecting it to go! Unfortunately, I don't quite mean that in a good way.
When we first return to the story, it's time to resolve the Me, Pearl and the Dying Boy cliffhanger from last time. Henry Preston leaves the story in the first arc of this omni, and the whole moment is sad, even though I thought the love story between him and Pearl was a drag for both characters. His death frees Pearl up to become an active player in what's left of this entire saga. Speaking of which...
The Gray Trader and the Beast cast their shadows over this entire story - so it's funny that right after Snyder introduced him, he apparently took a big 'ol hiatus from American Vampire. The effects of that gap year are pretty obvious in Second Cycle, the miniseries that follows up on where things left off. Second Cycle is a total thrill ride, but I can't help feeling like Snyder has forgotten the tone and style of the series. For so long, we were lacking an overarching villain, and while he does tie the Beast back to stuff we've seen before, it all just feels kinda rushed. And then the series ends on a cliffhanger.
After an even bigger hiatus, Snyder finally finishes the story with American Vampire: 1976, and this one really bears the marks of those hiatuses, because the ending is just absurd. He contrives to bring back every single good guy and put them in a final confrontation against the Gray Trader and the Beast, and while this is still a thrill ride, the story takes some bizarre twists and turns. Where does this saga of vampires living underground in the tapestry of American history end up? Well, think of the most implausible ending a story like this could possibly have, and you might get close to the mark.
One of the most annoying tendencies that American Vampire picks up from here is having stuff happen off screen. I get that it's necessary to do that sometimes, but good grief, seriously important stuff happens right where we can't see it, and there's so much telling/not showing going on here! And as if that wasn't annoying enough, the annoyingness of Skinner Sweet peaks in 1976, too!
And finally, we have the American Vampire Anthologies, perfectly placed to disrupt the flow of the story. I think it would've made sense to scatter the shorts in these anthologies across the omnibus, as it would help the story get back to the more intriguing pace in the last volume. As is, they're liking biting into a bone while eating a piece of chicken - and you weren't sure you were liking the chicken anyway.
All told, American Vampire is a really inconsistent comic, and while I recommended it in the last omni review, the conclusion is making me reconsider. I mean, these omnibuses together make up around 1800 pages of content, and if only half of that is good, then it doesn't make sense to read them, does it?
When we first return to the story, it's time to resolve the Me, Pearl and the Dying Boy cliffhanger from last time. Henry Preston leaves the story in the first arc of this omni, and the whole moment is sad, even though I thought the love story between him and Pearl was a drag for both characters. His death frees Pearl up to become an active player in what's left of this entire saga. Speaking of which...
The Gray Trader and the Beast cast their shadows over this entire story - so it's funny that right after Snyder introduced him, he apparently took a big 'ol hiatus from American Vampire. The effects of that gap year are pretty obvious in Second Cycle, the miniseries that follows up on where things left off. Second Cycle is a total thrill ride, but I can't help feeling like Snyder has forgotten the tone and style of the series. For so long, we were lacking an overarching villain, and while he does tie the Beast back to stuff we've seen before, it all just feels kinda rushed. And then the series ends on a cliffhanger.
After an even bigger hiatus, Snyder finally finishes the story with American Vampire: 1976, and this one really bears the marks of those hiatuses, because the ending is just absurd. He contrives to bring back every single good guy and put them in a final confrontation against the Gray Trader and the Beast, and while this is still a thrill ride, the story takes some bizarre twists and turns. Where does this saga of vampires living underground in the tapestry of American history end up? Well, think of the most implausible ending a story like this could possibly have, and you might get close to the mark.
One of the most annoying tendencies that American Vampire picks up from here is having stuff happen off screen. I get that it's necessary to do that sometimes, but good grief, seriously important stuff happens right where we can't see it, and there's so much telling/not showing going on here! And as if that wasn't annoying enough, the annoyingness of Skinner Sweet peaks in 1976, too!
And finally, we have the American Vampire Anthologies, perfectly placed to disrupt the flow of the story. I think it would've made sense to scatter the shorts in these anthologies across the omnibus, as it would help the story get back to the more intriguing pace in the last volume. As is, they're liking biting into a bone while eating a piece of chicken - and you weren't sure you were liking the chicken anyway.
All told, American Vampire is a really inconsistent comic, and while I recommended it in the last omni review, the conclusion is making me reconsider. I mean, these omnibuses together make up around 1800 pages of content, and if only half of that is good, then it doesn't make sense to read them, does it?
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