VanHook, Kevin

AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:

2 out of 5

(1 book)

Superman And Batman Vs. Vampires And Werewolves

(Art by Tom Mandrake)

As cursed monsters, beset by a terrible hunger for human life, prowl the streets of Gotham City, Batman and Superman begin a hunt for the madman responsible.  They find themselves unexpectedly aided by a vampire and a werewolf, who are seeking a cure for their conditions.

It has to be said that this book is every bit as dumb as its title suggests.  Which is a big shame, because it needn't have been; with there being plenty of potential to mix the supernatural horror world with the murky streets of Gotham.

The vampires and werewolves on offer here are the unsophisticated animalistic kind that could easily be swapped-out for, say, zombies for all that their individual lore actually impacts the story (which is to say that it doesn't).  In fact, the two titular monsters are treated exactly the same throughout the book and the story would have been identical if it was just vampires or just werewolves.  Honestly, I suspect the only reason that both of them are here is because someone really wanted to slap that title on the front of a book.  Or possibly because the 'Underworld' movies were popular at the time.

Far worse that the misuse of the monsters for me was the misuse of familiar DC characters.  Wonder Woman, Nightwing, Green Arrow, Etrigan and Man-Bat all show up for little better reason than to simply say they're in here.  They have no real relevance to the story being told and are the epitome of gratuitous cameos.  The two title characters are badly-handled as well, although Batman gets the slightly better end of the deal (and is the reason I've given this 2 out of 5, instead of 1 out of 5).  What really bothered me was how casual both Superman and Batman are about killing the werewolves and vampires.  Sure, Supes tries to save an infected boy at one point, but other than that it's just a free-for-all of slaughtering monsters.  For neither character to so much as hesitate felt so very wrong for both of them and, as with so much in this book, was clearly written to 'look cool' without any consideration of the implications.

2 out of 5

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DC Comics (here)