Angel: Blood & Trenches #1-4

by John Byrne

Like a lot of comics readers who grew up in the 80s, John Byrne was the first super-star artist whose work I could immediately recognize, and whose career I found myself following (almost to the point where I started reading Superman, but not quite).  And while he's done a lot to alienate himself from the major publishers and much of the comics-reading public, I do get the odd nostalgic twinge for his work.

So, when I hear that he has taken Joss Whedon's vampire with a soul character Angel, and placed him in the trenches of the first world war, I couldn't resist reading this.  I've written before about my massive interest in the Great War, which has often caused me to read some sub-par fiction or comics.

Anyway, this is a decent enough comic, although there is nowhere near enough trench action for me.  Angel, hearing rumors of vampires along the Eastern Front, travels to France and begins investigating.  He quickly finds some vampires preying on both sides, and he also crosses paths with a British Colonel who is a vampire hunter.  There is betrayal, trashed old convents, ice-covered rivers, and enough action to keep the book from getting slow.

Byrne penciled the book, but it seems no one has inked it, leaving the art scratchy and kind of faint in places.  The pages are in black and white, although as the story requires it, some panels are splashed in a lurid red.  It's not Byrne's best work, but he does still have what it takes, although his little gag on the last page is cringe-inducing.