Epic fail, vampire, epic fail. Andrew Bennett, king of the vampires had some strange notion that gathering every vampire in… America? The World?.. anyway, a whole mess of vampires in a desert shanty town and then bringing in an army of vampire slayers, was somehow a good idea. He wanted the slayers to help him “police” the vamps. The slayers, the Van Helsings, had another plan, one that involved them killing themselves and returning as killer zombies. “Technically, I think they’re mummies,” Andrew thinks. Okay, so they’re mummies. It’s still a giant blood bath! So congratz!
Andrew discovers the key to depowering them. Meanwhile, his human allies Tig and John Troughton narrowly avoid death caused by Tig’s misunderstanding of how autopilot works. During the melee, some vampires bite the mummies which turns out to be a very, very bad idea! Andrew uses his magic to temporarily cease the battle, but things might get even worse now!
This issue is built around the war between vampires and zombie-like mummies and that is rendered, by Andrea Sorrentino in EPIC fashion. The coloring (by Marcelo Maiolo) really stands out. Like in previous issues, the desert scenes are rendered in the sun-parched yellow and red pallette. Add explosions and fire and it becomes even more intense. But the Van Helsings are distinguished by a green glow from their amulets and eyes. Later, the green glow is used to even further effect.
We still get character development, though, delivered via some crisp dialogue. We see a new side to the normally stoic Andrew when the battle takes a twist, which points to a wildly different persona, perhaps a past mindset which explains a bit how he was able to love the seemingly crazed Mary.
There’s so much energy in this issue, I’d venture to say that it’s possible that even if you hadn’t read this series to this point, you might be able to both enjoy this single issue, as well as seek out the back issues.
Verdict: Buy
I, VAMPIRE #11
Written by Joshua Hale Fialkov
Art by Andrea Sorrentino
Cover by Clayton Crain
