American Vampire #17

"Ghost War," Part Five
written by Scott Snyder
art by Rafael Albuquerque

Snyder and Albuquerque are crafting another fine installment in their consistently riveting American Vampire series, but most of this issue of "Ghost War" feels more forced than usual.  It feigns surprises but ultimately is far more predictable than it would like to admit.  The unmasking of Skinner Sweet in the last issue was a fine surprise, not because we readers didn't recognize Sweet but because Preston did with such apparent ease.  His self-inflated bombast in their escape is loud and imperious but lacks the relish it often drips...with one notable exception.

Preston:  "I've been bitten enough that I've built up some immunity."

Sweet:  "Now you're just out to make me jealous, asshole!"  (American Vampire, Volume 3: 120 [American Vampire #17: 2])

It's a bizarre exchange, one in which the reasons for Sweet's jealousy are tantalizingly—and perhaps unintentionally—unarticulated.  Of whom, exactly, is Sweet meant to be jealous?  Preston, for marrying Pearl, for being her lover?  Pearl, for feeding freely on Henry for so many years?  Both?  It's further evidence of Skinner Sweet's strange obsession with Henry Preston, still another intriguing moment in an increasingly strange semi-romantic triangle whose pieces are difficult, if not impossible, to define.

The POW escape is less rich.  Snyder confirms what we and the soldiers must already suspect:  the Japanese are constructing weapons of mass destruction on Taipan using the contaminated and highly infectious blood of the local vampire breed.  It's a kind of biological analogue to the Manhattan Project mixed with the nuclear paranoia of Dr. Strangelove's "doomsday device".  Vicar's meager back-story, how he lost his arm, is meant to be poignant but falls well flat, as does his self-sacrifice.  The final splash may make the reader eager for "Ghost War"'s final installment, a showdown between the only two American Vampires for the life of a mortal man, but American Vampire #17 offers little more than a way to get there.  It's a stylish, kinetic trip to be sure, but it's still the penultimate act.

[September 2011]

As collected in American Vampire, Volume 3 (ISBN: 978-1401233334)