Title: American Vampire Volume 2
Author: Scott Snyder
Artists: Rafael Albuquerque’s and Mateus Santolouco
Genre: Horror / Action / Adventure
Year Published: 2011
Year Read: 2012
Series: American Vampire #2
Publisher: Vertigo Comics
Source: Library
Content Rating: Ages 16+ (Strong Language and Gory Violence)
Brief Introduction:
After reading the first volume of Scott Snyder’s classic graphic novel, “American
Vampire,” I just had to check out the second volume to see more adventures from Pearl and Skinner! So, I finally read “American Vampire:
Volume Two” by Scott Snyder (Stephen King is not writing this
volume this time) and I was even more amazed at how well this story is getting
developed and now I cannot wait to see what will happen to these characters next!
What is the story?
In this volume, there are two
stories being told regarding Pearl
and Skinner. In the first story, police
chief Cash McCogan starts investigating the murders of the four consortiums who
are trying to make money off of building the Hoover Dam and Cash starts to
suspect that Skinner might have something to do with the murders. In the second story, Pearl
is married to her sweetheart Henry Preston and while she is worried about being
a vampire and how it might affect her relationship with Henry, she will soon
discover that her former nemesis is still alive devising a way to get her
vengeance on Pearl!
What I loved about this comic:
Scott Snyder’s writing:
What I loved so much about
the first volume of “American Vampire”
was that Scott Snyder introduced a
really creative idea about a vampire being created in America instead of Europe,
which really put a huge twist on the mythology of vampires. In this volume, Scott Snyder has once again woven two brilliant stories about two
characters that are vampires and actually goes deep into the characters’ inner
feelings about the situations they are thrown in. I loved the way that Scott Snyder portrayed Skinner Sweet as being a truly threatening
villain as he is not shown as your typical tough guy villain, but is shown to
be really calculating and tricking anyone to get what he wants, which is what I
love to see in any villain. Scott Snyder’s portrayal of Pearl
Preston is wonderfully done as he really shows how Pearl struggles with being a
vampire and how it might affect her relationship with Henry, which I really
enjoyed seeing the love she shows for Henry and how concern she was for him as
she worries about hurting Henry because she is a vampire now. I also loved the stark difference between Pearl and Skinner’s personalities as Skinner uses his
vampire powers to get what he wants while Pearl
uses her vampire powers to protect people she cares about and I am thinking
that this might be a great set up if Pearl
and Skinner decided to fight each other someday.
Rafael Albuquerque’s and
Mateus Santolouco’s artwork:
I really enjoyed both Rafael
Albuquerque’s and Mateus Santolouco’s artwork as they both brings so much
creativity to the stories. Rafael Albuquerque’s artwork is as
usual dark and gritty as the characters are drawn in a scratchy way that really
brings out the gritty situations they are thrown in and I also loved the angry
and serious expressions on the character’s faces as they are drawn
effectively. Mateus Santolouco’s artwork has a much different feel from Rafael Albuquerque’s artwork as the
artwork is much smoother and lighter in color tones whenever they are used in
the flashback sequences of the characters talking about their past lives.
What made me feel uncomfortable about this book:
Just like the first volume,
this volume has plenty of gory violence (characters being ripped apart and
blood gushing out) that might make some readers feel uncomfortable about
reading about such violence. Also, there
is some strong language in this volume such as the use of the “f” word that
might offend some readers.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, “American Vampire: Volume Two” is a fantastic follow up
to the first volume and actually has more development on the characters and
more unexpected twists for the characters that definitely has me wanting to see
more from this series!
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