DC vs Vampires: World War V (2024-) #5

by Matthew Rosenberg, Otto Schmidt (artist), Acky Bright (artist)

Green Arrow and his team successfully infiltrate the vampire strong-hold, but their victory is cut short when they discover the horrifying secret that’s long given vampires a lethal edge over the human resis-tance. The truth is greater and more terrible than anything they could have possibly imagined—and its shocking connection to the Speed Force is only just the beginning!

Genres: Comics

Kindle Edition

Published December 11, 2024

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

"I haven’t always been a writer. My parents are writers and my brother is a writer, and I resisted that as long as I could. When I was 17, I hopped in a band’s van and I went on tour for a summer, and that was it, that was what I wanted to do. I ran a record label for 10 years, a small indie punk label. I did everything in music that you can do that doesn’t involve having musical ability. Eventually the music business, probably in a similar way to comics, will just start to break your heart, and I realized one day that I kind of hated music. I was resigned to thinking, if I’m going to be involved in music forever, I’m going to hate it for the rest of my life. I just stopped. I stopped having any sort of business with music, any involvement.

I read comics my whole life, so I just naturally fell back into another medium that is marginalized and hard to make a living in."

Source: http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles...

Writer of comics WE CAN NEVER GO HOME, SECRET WARS JOURNAL, OUR WORK FILLS THE PEWS, 12 REASONS TO DIE, & MENU.

Reviews

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the darknest issues I've read in a long time and I understand it was not for everyone. That being said I found it excellent.

It's interesting that despite being such an alterred world the characters still feel like themeselves. I foudn myself enjoying Damian a lot in this, many series (including his current main book) go for a tumblr-level characterization where he is just a soft character-less bunch of tropes and others go too much in the other direction and make him just an asshole. I think this series manages a balance that I think makes him true to who he is at his best: a kid educated in two extremely different life philosohies, who isn't sure of what his nature should be as a result, but who still tries to help. I'm intrigued with Barbara and what role is she going to play, specially now that Dinah is fully on Oliver's side. The drama is excelelnt and some of the reveals in this issue where heartbreaking.

This was good drama.

[Jadyn❀ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sorry, I don’t even know what to say about it anymore. The humorous tone worked for this series at first. The worse things get the more it feels like a mockery. And it was all a lot more fun when characters still felt, I don’t know, in character? What’s the point of these humans and vampires duking it out if they might as well all be original characters anyway? I’m not convinced the writer’s ever read a comic about Damian, Barbara could be swapped out for…. Literally anyone else because her character is just “pretentious overconfident queen” at this point. Dinah and Ollie don’t feel right. What was it all for with Constantine? Will still be waiting for payoff with that. And the last thing I’ll say, I don’t know what it’s all for. This baby is the prophecy. She’s gonna end the war. In what way is she supposed to be saving them? Are they supposed to wait until she grows up? And then what does she do? The best thing about this issue is the cover. At least that’s cool. Actually, scratch that. The backup story is the best thing about it, and it was devastating. No hope for humanity in this universe.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good issue. I wish there was just one or two fewer threads to follow with the story, but overall, it’s still exciting just like the original series! And it’s well written with great banter, which I adore.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again, like the stuff with Mr. Miracle. And Poor Wally. Rest was just okay.

[Cybernex007 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well things continue to splinter in quite captivating and surprising ways. The story has really boiled down to being told from two perspectives, Mister Miracle and his daughter and Damian against the vampire empire. I want to focus on mister miracle and his duster first. Last we left off he was surrounded by very powerful vampires and this time escape was going to look a little different. At the very least this section confirmed who the two vampires were that I couldn’t immediately identify. Shimmer, mammoth’s sister, and Fuji of storm watch! But my excitement is lost and replaced with sadness as Scott puts his daughter off to the side with the promise they won’t hurt her as they beat into him. But like I said, escape can take many unexpected forms…and this time it’s in the arrival of 250 pounds of angry lady. I love Scott’s dumbfounded crooked smile look as he says hello to Barda right before she leaps in and bashes Mammoth’s head in. They all signed their death sentences when they went anger her child. It doesn’t take Barda long to rip through all of them, only to shift her attention to Scott. As it turns out she has been searching for him for months, we’ll recall for their child and the prophecy she represents. But that’s exactly why Scott has been running, she is not a prophecy or a political tool…she a is a baby, and they agreed long ago not to listen to prophecies. But Barda still sees the potential, a baby born of two families that could bring about the end of the war with the humans. But Scott points out they are aliens and they don’t know how the infection works on them compared to others, she may be a vampire now but she wasn’t when she was knocked up. But when it comes down to it, Avia is perfectly normal and is not the chosen one and needs to be kept safe. But Barda won’t let Scott leave, and fortunately for him as he is thrust into the ground…supergirl, steel, red tornado, and Lobo show up to help. While supergirl and the rest immediately start to deal with Barda, Lobo seems distracted by something else nearby. Using this chaos as cover Scott slips away to try and find a boat to be on their way, unaware he is walking right into Aquaman’s trap.

But as I said that is just one side to this war, and things are getting quite crazy with Damian. Last we left off Green arrow was signing his death sentence. Even as Dinah walks up to him to try and convince Ollie they need to be better than their enemies, Ollie is under the firm belief that they can no longer be better and they are just supposed to beat them. But as he lets the arrow fly, swamp thing stops it. That answer wasn’t good enough for him. Dinah makes it clear that she doesn’t want to spare him because of the person he is, but because they are at war and he is an advantage they can’t pass up.

Shifting our focus over to Gotham, the higher ups of the vampire empire have a visitor in the form of John Constantine. He is surprised to see Harley Quinn chained up in the throne room, and unfortunately for her he is not here to save her. As Grodd approaches John thanks him for meeting on such short notice, but Grodd cuts him off as he is not who John will be addressing. From the shadows Queen Barbara steps forward. She still isn’t looking great and is still pretty charred, but she is able to walk and talk probably thanks to granny goodness who I am still adamant is that old woman tracking down Scott. Constantine explains that he wanes peace between them and just like she can’t speak for all vampires he can’t speak for all humans, he if they remove Dania from the equation cooler heads may prevail. He doesn’t have Damian yet but he can get him for a favor in return. Just then a servant stepped forward to announce that Damian is at the front gate…this comes as a shock to both of them.

Just outside swamp thing has brought Damian as a prisoner and vampire count vertigo is there to greet them. Swamp thing claims he wants to trade Damian in exchange for land to grow but it appears as if Damian isn’t doing too well. Only a few moments of walking and he barfs up a stream of blood all over vertigo’s shoes. But this blood contains a secret, as Damian sending it flying was the sign for all the tiny heroes inside to grow larger! Atom is able to drop Green arrow, Dinah, Zealot, Wildcat, killer croc, and Killer moth all on the vampires at the gate. Vertigo is ripped in half by Waylon immediately. Damian wants to go for the tower as vertigo hinted at the queen being alive, but Ollie orders him against it as the mission is rescuing the humans in the nearby farm to bring back proof of the broken treaty to rally the other humans. Swamp thing is there to lead them to where signs of life are, but he can only find it in one location. The group fight last more vampires as they ready to save a bunch of sick humans…but there are none. Dinah is ready to leave but Ollie notices one room and as he rips it open…he finds Wally. I always wondered what happened to the other speedsters after Barry’s death, and at least in Wally’s case we know what happened and it’s horrific. The vegetation is setup in a forced feeding tube to keep Wally going as a human generator. But because of the danger he poses they cut off his legs and suspended him as they forced him to continually turn a crank to generate power. Wally wants nothing more than death, but the group refuses as they don’t do that. But they promise to get him out of here and to make the people who did this pay. Ollie is broken up, he had no idea they were doing this. But this has only fired Dinah up, she completely sees now what Ollie was saying…they all have to die.

Which honestly makes it even worse how Constantine can try and make deals with the vampires. Using Damian’s arrival to his advantage, John claims that was part of his plan and now he wanes his favor. He explains that Jason Blood and a few other mystics did something to him a bit back and he would like Barbara to command them to give his memories back. I’m not going to lie, he really does need those memories back but what a terrible way to go about it. Especially as before Barbara can even consider the favor, a servant approaches to explain Damian escaped and it was all a trick and he is now loose in the city…John jokingly asks how much damage he can really cause, only to immediately cut over to Damian and the other fighters walking away from explosions like they are in an action movie. With all the explosions ripping through the city, John saw that as his opportunity to leave. But Grodd immediately slammed him into the wall, John prepared a trick up his sleeve to escape but Barbara had her own mystics ready to cancel him out. Unfortunately John did not plan on that and mentions that if anyone tries to drink his blood it won’t go well. If he wants it that way they can oblige, instead of drinking his blood Grodd simply snaps his neck. But I’ve seen Constantine beat death before, there is no chance this is the end.

Speaking of the end, the back up story brings us to the end of Black Lightning’s story. We last left off in one of the West Coast hidden bat caves, setup during the time of the outsiders, as Jeff was forced to kill bumblebee. But then the Earth around him began to shake and we find out the Bat-mite’s time with geo-force didn’t just end with his death and that he was turned into a vampire instead and reassigned to the west coast from Gotham just in case anyone else came back to this location. Jeff is now contending with the power of the Earth itself, he understands how tough this will be but he continues to maintain hope that this was not a trap meant for him. Something else went down here and they could still be out there. As Jeff is blasted in the side and thrown into a hole, he suddenly roars back up, magnetizing the giant penny in the process as he slams it back down on Geo-force. As Geo-force lifts the penny up, Jeff had enough time to take Kobra’s staff, on display nearby, to turn it into a makeshift stake to drive into Geo-force. Another thing on display is Jeff’s old Afro/mask hybrid helmet, and inside a note from Lynn is taped mentioning that they will wait for him.

Hope prevails and Jeff takes one of the batcycles to continue his search. His immediate next step is another outsiders era safe house located in the mountains. Jeff is wearing down at this point and as he approaches the ground begins to shake once more, he isn’t ready for another fight but instead he turns around to find his daughter, Anissa, walking towards him. She embraces him and then welcomes him inside where the rest of his family alongside a lot of other outsiders are safe. We’ve got creeper, Metamorpho, someone who looks like windfall, and someone who looks like new wave, there is also a final guy who looks like a vampire but I am sure is chill. Jeff holds strong just long enough to have a final meal with his family, before sneaking away to succumb to his wounds. But his family refused to let him die alone, they were all there for him as he bled out and walked towards the light. RIP Jefferson Pierce, the man who held into hope.

[Gloria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Right now, I'm finding this series pretty excellent. I think the scripting is strong and there's still a good balanace between levity and drama. The character work shines specially. This issue was probably one of the most dramatic ones, I was literally gasping for air, but I think it really worked.

I do wonder however if there's a limit in making something too bleak. As said, I think it's very good right now, but that's because it's on the edge of a very delicate balance.

[Yasser Maniram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Liked the art, liked the characters inside, good story depth in this issue. Lots of substance. Some funny moments involving Barda.

[David Dalton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this dark series. Great characters and story.

[James B · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the writing of this series. Hell I love the writing of all the DC Vs Vampires comics. It's so brutally done, and never gets old