V Wars has gone a tad of a roller coaster ride. When it is good, the comic really is brilliant and a new take on the whole vampire vs. human debate. But when the comic gets slow, it hits some lows that make me real unfocused when reading it. I just wish the consistency of the story was better. And I have to admit that for this reason, the comic will quickly become a background read compared to other titles if I keep going through this coaster. Last issue, Swann and Queen make a deal. It is high intensity level plus Swann’s daughter is alive and being taken care of by Queen. So she holds all the cards. Swann could probably be persuaded into anything. Now Swann is back with V-8 on missions living anything but the dream. He heads to this bar where an attacked occurred. It is gruesome scene which should be expected in V Wars. The gore is gross, but not uncalled for. It needs to be there, and I think the comic gives the readers the perfect amount of gore plus storyline. They don’t overshadow each other.
Anyway, Swann quickly realizes that the event that occurred was done by Necrophagous. The rest of V-8 is confused by this statement, but Swann knows that there are all types of bloods out there. Some take blood, some take minerals, some take faith, while others eat the whole body. Swann figures that there is a group called Nelapsi and that they must be responsible for the attack. It seems like the bloods may even be controlled by some chip inside of them. Now V-8 must find out the truth about the bar and who is leading all of this. Entering the town just creeps me out. It is dark and musty with no signs of life even though there should be signs.
The story moves pretty slowly this issue. We don’t get any big reveals like last issue and not a lot of action like the issue before that. It felt like it was piecing together a new storyline, but I couldn’t get into the exposition. I wish they would have somehow captured Swann and Queen’s story from last issue or even caught up with how our little divided town, Pepper Grove, was doing from issue #4. This just felt all disconnected with emotions. The last thing that I wish V Wars to do is give a quick recap before every issue or a character run down. I think it would help to draw in new readers and allow those readers to not have to start from the beginning. I also think this would help encourage readers to stay on board. If they gave us hope of going back to unsolved mysteries from the other issues, it would let the readers know that the comic will finish those stories just not right away. Instead I feel like half of the characters are forgotten about.
Either V Wars goes up and down, so I don’t know how many more hills I go over without getting on a steady track. I hope the comic can bring it together soon, so we can all relax and enjoy this bloods vs. the beats story.
Score: 3/5
Writer: Jonathan Maberry Artist: Ryan Brown Publisher: IDW Publishing Price: $3.99 Release Date: 10/8/14 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital