DC vs. Vampires: World War V, by Matt Rosenberg and Otto Schmidt, continues the story of a world smashed by a vampire plague. There are shades of DCeased here, but DC vs. Vampires has always been able to hold its own because of Rosenberg and Schmidt’s vision, something that becomes apparent in the latest issue. World War V has seen the uneasy truce between humans and the ascendant vampires, end. Each side is looking for the child of Mister Miracle and Big Barda and issue six sees the results of that search, which spells doom for Aquaman when the real threat behind the little girl shows up.
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Aquaman Makes a Terrible Mistake
The issue kicks off with the heroes and the vampires getting to Mister Miracle’s family at about the same time. Vampire-Aquaman has already taken Scott Free and his daughter, while the heroes have found Big Barda. Aquaman, sent by Grodd to retrieve the child alive, decides instead to drown her and Mister Miracle. Jayna, the only remaining Wonder Twin, tries to stop him, but Mera shows up and uses her hydrokinesis to stop Jayna’s water construct, allowing Aquaman to drown Mister Miracle and the little girl.
The heroes go home, with Green Arrow and Lois Lane arguing over his recent attack on Gotham City and the breaking of the truce with the vampires, with the vampire Damian Wayne revealing that Alfred may have survived the Gotham attack. A mysterious stranger asks about Scott Free’s daughter and learns that she’s dead, just as the vampire army, led by Queen Gordon, Grodd, and Aquaman, march on the human stronghold. The stranger is revealed to be Metron (the first indication of what’s coming), and the vampire army arrives to break up the humans’ pow-wow. The two sides face off, with Supergirl trying at first to get the vampires to respect the truce despite both sides’ actions, and then drawing a line in the snow, leading to a massive battle.
Related: DC Reveals New Look at DC vs. Vampires Sequel
The human forces are outnumbered and Aquaman asks Queen Gordon if she wants him to send in the rest of the army. She says she likes to see them fight while they still have hope when a familiar villain shows up: the God of Evil known as Darkseid. He reveals that he sent Granny Goodness, whom none of the vampires recognized, to get the vampires to retrieve the daughter of Barda and Scott Free because Darkseid wanted his granddaughter by his side.
Aquaman sasses Darkseid, telling him that the vampires don’t care about his commands and that he should leave now so they can destroy the humans. The underwater monarch then reveals that he killed the young girl, robbing Darkseid of his prize. Darkseid takes that as well as expected, grabs Aquaman, and crushes him, with the Atlantean vampire dying in an explosion of blood, bone, and viscera. Darkseid then commands his Boom Tubes to open, sending in legions of Parademons to destroy both sides.
Darkseid’s Arrival Completely Changes the Conflict of DC vs. Vampires
DC vs Vampires has stayed pretty Earthbound, but it was only a matter of time before Darkseid got involved in the whole conflict. The loss of his granddaughter has caused him to decide that the Earth is surplus, which completely changes World War V‘s story. Darkseid has a nearly inexhaustible supply of Parademons to throw at both sides of the war, and doesn’t care about the survival of the humans or the vampires. There’s really only one way for both sides to survive – to team up against the God of Evil and his forces – and even that’s not going to guarantee Earth will weather this conflict.
The death of Aquaman is something of a shock. The vampire Atlantean definitely deserves Darkseid’s judgment – he drowned a little girl – but DC’s pushing Aquaman pretty hard elsewhere, so seeing him die in such an anti-climactic manner feels weird. However, it’s quite satisfying as far as it goes and definitely hurts the vampire forces. Aquaman was one of their leaders and losing him is going to weaken them in the conflict to come.
This series is about to completely change and that’s a good thing. These types of stories often come down to the much-reduced humans somehow triumphing over the more numerous and powerful monsters, but injecting the forces of Apokolips into things sets World War V apart from stories like DCeased. It’ll be interesting to see how Rosenberg and Schmidt develop this new facet of the conflict.
DC vs. Vampires: World War V #6 is on sale now.
