DC vs. Vampires: Killers #1

DC vs. Vampires

by Matthew Rosenberg, Hicham Habchi - Pyroow (Cover Art), Antonio Fabela (Colorist)

In the shadow of the new Vampire World Order, Harley Quinn rules the human underworld in this age of darkness. She has survived by only looking out for herself...but she might have just found the key to saving the world.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Horror, Graphic Novels Comics, Batman, Comic Book, Vampires

26 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 28, 2022

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

[Gordon · Rating 2 out of 5]

2½ ⭐
Not bad. But there's some really mind numbing “Tim Seeley’esq” sounding dialogue about poop, and Jesus Christ, Matthew Rosenberg is usually pretty good but this was embarrassing.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent issue inbetween main series, just didn't have the same BITE...get it? Cause vampires? I'm going to sleep.

[David Dalton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ha! I liked this one shot better than I thought I would.

With 2 one-shot DC vs. Vampire issues and the upcoming All Out WAR, it seems we are bursting with Vampires all over the place.

DC vs. Vampires is looking to one up the recent DCeased stories. I am liking it.

[Kylie · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much fun!!

[Renan Fontes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fun read.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just okay for me. Interesting lead-in to the main thread #7 but doesn’t have the same bite (ha!) as the main series.

[juku!! ★ · Rating 3 out of 5]

kocham harley quinn

[Julio Bonilla]

My name is Harley Quinn. I guess I'm on the run now.

Harley is calling the shots now that Gotham is overrun by vampires. ...Or is she?

I've only read the first issue, but this one-shot was really suspenseful. Harley has her gang, but she lives with Selina Kyle(Catwoman), who is always watching her friend's back. A friend in need is a friend indeed.

[Cybernex007 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to admit…hell yeah. Batman’s dead, the sun is eternally blocked, and who does humanity have to rely on to save the world…none other than Harley Quinn!! Of course things didn’t start that way, once Gotham fell Harley filled the power vacuum and became the leader of the underworld alongside Catwoman, and their muscle in the form of clayface and Solomon Grundy (I knew he would come back after being killed in the legion of doom HQ, lol). At the start of this issue we see them try and pull in a rival underworld outfit led by the mad hatter…only for Jervis to try and kill them so Harley put a bullet in his head. Selina is worried about the moves they are making, the vampires are only letting them get by and if they become too big a fish they may become a target. But Harley has gotten by this long and isn’t that worried, which is why she decided to ignore the human curfew to get some food with her boys while Selina went home.

But it was at this dinner they received an unexpected visitor in the form of James Gordon. He has come to Harley because he knows she can get things out of Gotham, he had a deal setup with Jervis but she took on his responsibilities when she killed him. Gordon needs to get out now he has Luthor’s blood in his possession, within may be the last chance for humanity to defeat the vampires. Harley isn’t interested at first as she has a good thing coming, but then vampires Scarecrow, atom smasher, and Doctor midnite come to rain on their party as Jim slyly slips the blood into Harley’s pocket. Luckily Harley is able to keep them from rolling each other apart, but then mister terrific shod up to remind her who is in charge. He swats Harley away and reminds her that she is just food existing in their city, and she better leave now with Gordon behind

Harley trudges back home to Arkham asylum where she slipped into her room, only then noticing the vial of blood in her pocket. Selina and to check on her and get her cleaned up after she got cut as exposed blood is the last thing you want in this world right now. But later that night Selina snuck back in, where Harley caught her going for the vial of blood. Harley explains that Jim gave it to her and it could be the hope to save the world if they can get it into the hands of people who really understand it, but Selina only sees it as an opportunity to earn points with the higher up vampires as it’s probably not real after all and they would pay a high price for it. But Harley isn’t interested, saving the world actually sounds pretty nice.

That night Haley arranged a meet with her boys to get on their boat and out of Gotham…but once she arrived she found Grundy decapitated (I’m sure he will be back, lol) and clayface left with nothing but a puddle…then vampire mister terrific and doctor midnite step out from the shadows, they want the vial of blood as after torturing Gordon he told them all about its Harley dug into her pants and pretended to pull it out, instead pulling out a spray of holy water she sent right into Terrific’s eyes as she staked midnite. Terrific lunged for her but before he could sink his teeth into her, Hadley got a stake right through his heart.

Harley quickly returned home where she found Catwoman eating for her. But the only thing Selina is interested in right now is the vial of blood, which is very disappointing to Harley as it means Selina has been turned. Selina is still trying to convince Harley that the blood is some human fantasy and she needs to drop it, but Harley thankfully only sees her as a traitor which is solidified by Selina attempting to sink her teeth into Harley. But suddenly Selina fell back, you see…Harley was worried about more biters coming for the blood so she was crazy enough to inject it into her own body…Selina just killed herself by trying to bite Harley. And now the last hope for humanity resides in a crazy killer clown, you’ve gotta love it!!

[Kastie Pavlik · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I could say I'm at least whelmed with this one-shot. So far, the whole Vs. Vampire thing has been underwhelming. Vamps are kind of my thing, so it's extra disappointing. These are money grab fill ins that could be better with just a *little* more effort toward an actual story, although this one is better than Hunters. The Jeff Gordon joke did make me LOL, but mostly I was distracted by Harley's coloring. And here I'll descend into a nitpicky rant that has little to do with this rating, but has bugged me across other titles, as well, and some are spoilers if you haven't read them, so into tags to bitch about DC...

I don't usually do this, but ever since her character redesign, she's been colored inconsistently to the point that once I notice, if the story isn't solid, then it becomes distracting and annoying. Sometimes her hair is blue on her right instead of the left (or it's been reversed and then that's inconsistent in the reversal) or her eye shadow is reversed, or the back and forth color reversal of off somewhere... I know it's nitpicky, but it's annoying. In this issue, the cover image has her eye shadow and hair ribbon reversed, but her colors are half and half split down each side throughout the interior. In the Arkham Tower arc of Detective Comics (Shadow of the Bat), she was a reverse of herself as an inmate, which was an interesting idea, and looked like a mirrored image of Harley Quinn, but regardless of whether the reader knew it was her or her identity had been revealed by then, the colors were sometimes inconsistent in the same issue. Same thing when she appears in other titles. I like Harley and like that she's showing up in so many titles right now. I wish there was consistency in her design. But, to be fair, I've noticed design inconstancies with Batman himself in a few issues. With all the shake ups at WB that involve DC, these little errors speak to larger problems and lower quality control, and that makes me reluctant to pick up titles that I'd think I'd like. I think the first one-shot for Vs. Vampires made me rethink getting the War. This is not as good as Dead Planet, but it could be, and that sucks. But I'm sick of dumping money into DC for nothing.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fun but your enjoyment of this is purely going to depend upon how much you care for Harley Quinn. It's an interesting take and one that fits her character but the vial of blood angle just kind of comes out of nowhere and I'm going to be miffed if it doesn't play a part in the main story instead of being regulated to this one-shot.

[James Rodrigues · Rating 3 out of 5]

A one-shot which throws seemingly important information into the story, as Harley Quinn tries to stay alive and battles with her conscience during the DC Universe's vampire uprising. The artwork looks wonky in places, the jokes about poop didn't work, yet this was an entertaining read.

[Jennifer Baratta · Rating 5 out of 5]

New issue with DC vs Vampires Woohoo!

Harley Quinn is the saviour of the DC vs Vampires.
Clayface is gone.
Hope is raising.
The artwork is outstanding and the writing is great.

[Burton Olivier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hell yeah, Harley. This world is a lot of fun.

[Casper · Rating 5 out of 5]

harley’s character design in this is to die for 🫶🏻

[Bibie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A round of applause for Harley Quinn, the woman, the myth, the legend. Her genius is showing.

[Hilary "Fox" · Rating 2 out of 5]

This issue had its moments, but overall it's just Harley being Harley. Fun in small doses, but a bit overplayed.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harley Quinn is running the human criminal underground in a Gotham overtaken by vampires. This was just all-right, as was the artwork.

[Ross · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hey, look...

It's a Harley one-shot set in the 'DC vs Vampires' story!

Bonus: I guess we learned what happened to that vial of blood in the main story. Explains so much.

[James B · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's an awesome Harley focused one-shot. Even though All Out War ended with almost everyone dead, this one-shot shows that the humans have another secret weapon.

[Jazz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harley Quin loml time to save Gotham

[Gabriel Xavier · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quanto mais coisa eu leio da Arlequina mais eu acho uma personagem 💤 mas até que a história agrega pro contexto geral desse elseworld.

[Cazadora De Mundos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Es contexto, traición y cura. Pero la verdad me gusta más en el cómic más que en este one shot

[Tina]

Do NOT read this before issues 6 and 7 of the regular DC vs. Vampires story, or you will be very confused.

I wish I'd thought to look up the correct reading order beforehand.

[Annemarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I'm unsure how I feel about this. I liked the friendship between Harley and Selena as is something I haven't seen much before. I also really liked the Hatter scene, it was fun.

The art style is really cool and I really enjoyed it.

The plot feels a bit weak, and the jokes are more often than not not funny at all, which is a pity. I did enjoy it, but it wasn't amazing or anything.

[Ikaros Elias · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this!! Harley has never been my favorite character— I haven't found a version of her that really clicks with me— but I did enjoy her in this. I like seeing her actually go out and be clever about things. She's smart, and this comic shows it. The plot was interesting, but it felt cliché in a way? Almost like everybody who you thought would die died, everyone you thought would betray her betrayed her, etc.. Regardless, I did end up enjoying this!!

[Gracie · Rating 3 out of 5]

idk why catwoman was here but i’m not complaining

[lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

harley and selina aka loml <<3

[Amy Walker - Trans-Scribe Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first heard about DC vs Vampires I wasn't completely sold on the idea. I thought it could be a fairly decent horror themed series that was just a silly bit of fun; but, only a handful of issues in it had quickly become one of my favourite series the DC are producing, with some incredibly tense moments, some horrific scenes, and a plot where I honestly don't know if the heroes are going to win.

Whilst the main series has been going on strong there have been a few one-shots coming out alongside it to expand the story. DC vs Vampires: Killers is the second one so far, and focuses on Harley Quinn as one of the last humans left alive in Gotham as the vampires have taken over.

When we meet Harley she's teamed up with Clayface, Solomon Grundy, and Catwoman, and is running a small, underground crime ring. She's managed to walk a fine line between making a comfortable, and profitable, existence for herself, and keeping off the vampire's radar. However, when she's approached by Jim Gordon, who has the vial of Lex Luthor's blood that the vampires are after, her carefully built world starts to fall down around her.

Luthor's blood is something that was an important plot point in the early issues of the main series, and amongst all of the panic of trying to figure out who is and isn't a vampire, and the trauma of seeing so many beloved characters either become vampires or be brutally killed by them, I'd kind of forgotten about it. So it's nice to be reminded of it here.

I like the little life that Harley has built for herself, and how two of her main allies are characters that I imagine can't be turned into vampires and betray her. It shows that she's trying to think smart, despite clearly not being smart enough to just get away from the city. With the way that this issue ends it's clear that she's going to be playing a bigger role in the series, and may be a pivotal piece towards actually beating the vampires.

However, there was something about the book that just didn't feel as exciting as the main title. I had a similar issue with the DC vs Vampires: Hunters one shot. The stories in these one-off's are good, but just not as good as the main title. I don't know what it is, because Matthew Rosenberg wrote the main series issues too. Maybe it's because the art, provided by Mike Bowden and Eduardo Mello, is very different from the main book.

I can't put my finger on why I don't enjoy this issue as much as the main series, but that doesn't mean it's a bad issue. It's a four out of five compared to the main title's five out of five, so it's not a huge drop in quality.

For those who are enjoying this series there's some good stuff here, and it seems to be setting up some important things for later on in this story; so if you're looking to get every part of this series I don't think you'll be let down.