Batman: The Black Mirror - Scott Snyder

Scott Snyder, the creator and writer of the AMERICAN VAMPIRE series, has also been writing Batman stories for DETECTIVE COMICS in recent years. I recently read THE BLACK MIRROR, a collection of a year's worth of stories from Snyder's run on the Caped Crusader.

I'd gotten out of touch with the continuity in the DC universe (and still am, to a large extent), but this volume has a quick summary of what's been going on. Bruce Wayne has given up being Batman (what, again?) and left Gotham City. Dick Grayson, the original Robin, is now Batman. Tim Drake, one of the replacement Robins along the way, is now sort of grown up and is a character called the Red Robin. Bruce Wayne's son Damian, introduced in BATMAN AND SON, is now Robin. Luckily, the stories in this volume focus almost exclusively on Dick as Batman, so my confusion about the other two characters didn't really keep me from enjoying the four connected story arcs that make up the book.

The title story, "The Black Mirror", is actually the first one and concerns Batman's attempts to break a ring of black marketeers dealing in stolen supervillain technology and artifacts. Police Commissioner Jim Gordon takes center stage in the next arc, "Skeleton Cases", as his son James Jr. (I don't know where he came from, either, I wasn't aware that Barbara Gordon had a brother) returns to Gotham City. Problem is, James Jr. may well be a serial killer. "Hungry City" features the return of another new character from the past (if that makes sense), the daughter of the crime boss responsible for the murder of Dick Grayson's parents. She seems to have gone straight and become a very successful businesswoman, but is she really? A bizarre and almost impossible crime draws Batman into an investigation of her activities and naturally winds up with him almost getting killed a couple of times. Then the ongoing mystery of James Gordon Jr. comes to an end in "Skeleton Key", which also features the return of the greatest Batman villain, The Joker.

So, having read Batman comic books for more than fifty years, what do I think of this almost current version? Well, not bad. Snyder's scripts are pretty good, featuring some actual detective work on Batman's part, goofy touches reminiscent of classic Batman (a giant killer whale inside a bank lobby, for instance), an evocation of Gotham City as a gritty, noirish place, and a few nods to continuity and history. I wish I could say that I liked the artwork by Jock (Mark Simpson) and Francesco Francavilla in these stories, but I really don't. Francavilla's work is the stronger of the two, in my opinion, but to an old curmudgeon like me, the storytelling just isn't clear enough. Now, if you'd had Neal Adams or Jim Aparo illustrating these same stories, the way they did back in my day . . . (Yeah, yeah, that's a nice story, Grandpa.)

All in all, though, I found enough to like here that I'll probably read more of Snyder's Batman work. There are at least two more collections available.

American Vampire Volume 4 - Scott Snyder

Even though I'm not the biggest fan of horror comics, I'm still reading and enjoying the collected editions of Scott Snyder's AMERICAN VAMPIRE, a comic that's almost as much historical fiction as it is horror.

Volume 4 collects three storylines from the comic. The first one, "The Beast in the Cave", is a Western, a prequel story that finds Skinner Sweet, who will later become the American Vampire of the title, and his adopted brother and soon-to-be nemesis Jim Book fighting on the same side as U.S. cavalrymen during the Apache Wars. As you might expect, a supernatural angle crops up and leads to plenty of bloody violence, although things don't really play out the way you might think they would. This arc has some nice artwork by European comics legend Jordi Bernet that reminds me of Joe Kubert's art.

The second storyline, "Death Race", has art by series co-creator Rafael Albuquerque and is set in California in 1954. The protagonist is a typical teenage delinquent and hot-rodder, only as usual things aren't what they appear. This JD has a secret that involves Skinner Sweet, and this four-issue arc features an epic chase and battle between the two of them.

A two-parter called "The Nocturnes" rounds out this collection and spins a yarn set in Alabama in 1954 that mixes doo-wop music, the Korean War, and a type of monster that's new to this series. The art is by Roger Cruz and Riccardo Burchielli.

All these stories were written by Scott Snyder, and the scripts are fast-paced, bleak, and occasionally punctuated by some very dark humor. I think there were too many flashbacks in "Death Race", which made the story a little hard to follow, but overall I enjoy Snyder's work and I like this series. I'm sure I'll continue to read these collected editions as they come out.

American Vampire, Volume 2 - Scott Snyder

A while back I read the first volume of this graphic novel horror/historical fiction series, which, as you may recall, was co-authored by Stephen King. Creator Scott Snyder is on his own this time, and I think the book is better for it. The parallel storylines that King and Snyder came up with for the first volume were a little bit confusing. AMERICAN VAMPIRE, VOLUME 2 offers two separate stories that are more straightforward but just as entertaining.


The first one, “Devil in the Sand”, is set in Las Vegas in 1936 and is as much a hardboiled crime story as it is a vampire yarn. The protagonist is the tough local chief of police, who is trying to live up to the legacy of his father, who was the previous chief. When several rich local businessmen are murdered and some mysterious people who claim to be federal agents but maybe aren’t show up in town, he’s got his hands full trying to stay alive and straighten everything out. Skinner Sweet, the so-called American Vampire who is a new breed of bloodsucker not bothered by the sun, is on hand, too, and is still really evil. The four-part “Devil in the Sand” is a spectacular tale that would make a great, if bloody, movie. “The Way Out”, the two-parter that fills up the rest of the volume, is a fairly minor piece concerning the back-story of some of the characters, but it’s also entertaining and does a good job of capturing the Depression-era atmosphere. It also serves to set up some storylines that will probably be important in the next volume, which is set during World War II.


Snyder’s scripts are tough and well-written, blending introspection, gory action, and historical backgrounds. I’m not as fond of the art by Rafael Albuquerque and Mateos Santolouco, but it’s okay. I had to look back at too many panels to figure out what was going on, which always bothers me. But the art is atmospheric and creepy as all get-out at times, so I’ll give it credit for that.


These are really nice volumes, and I’m looking forward to seeing what Snyder comes up with next. If you’re a fan of vampire fiction, you really should check out AMERICAN VAMPIRE.

American Vampire - Scott Snyder and Stephen King

I’d never heard of this comic book series before, but when I ran across a hardback collection of the first story arc from it, I thought it looked interesting. Also, it appeared to be co-written by Stephen King. Now, I’m not a huge Stephen King fan (I’m sure that breaks his heart), but I have read and enjoyed quite a bit of his work. I figured he helped plot this book, and I liked that other vampire yarn of his, SALEM’S LOT, so why not give it a try?


Well, as it turns out, King didn’t co-plot this series. Scott Snyder actually created it and plotted it, and King wrote half the stories in the book. Each issue has two separate stories in it, one set in Los Angeles in 1925 (written by Snyder), and a connected story running from the 1880s up to 1925 (written by King). Taken together they form an epic yarn about the creation of a new kind of vampire, an American vampire as opposed to the classic European kind, who can walk in the daylight and is even stronger, faster, and more vicious than the originals. The first American vampire is outlaw Skinner Sweet, who’s a fascinating, utterly evil character. The shadow of that evil stretches over a stalwart Pinkerton agent in the Old West, James Book, all the way to Hollywood and a young actress named Pearl Jones years later.


This is pretty good stuff. I don’t read all that much horror, and if this were a movie the buckets of blood necessary to film it would probably keep me from watching it. But it works very well as a graphic novel, and it’s always nice to see vampires used as the bad guys, rather than as brooding romantic heroes, a variation that I confess I’ve never really understood. And most of the vampires in AMERICAN VAMPIRE are really bad guys indeed.


The scripts by Snyder and King are very good, perking right along with action and good dialogue and the occasional plot twist. I’m less fond of the artwork by Rafael Albuquerque, which is a little too grotesque and stylized and hard to follow in places for my old guy eyes. Some of the individual panels, though, are certainly striking. A few of the period details don’t quite ring true, and somebody should have caught the fact that the title “Ms.” didn’t exist in the 1920s. These little flaws are annoying but don’t keep the book from being entertaining.


So if you’re a Stephen King fan or just a horror/vampire fan in general, AMERICAN VAMPIRE is certainly worth reading. From the way the story ends, I assume there’ll be more collections in the future, and I’ll probably read them.