I remember reading an interview with Stephen Bissette about the moment he decided to leave penciling Swamp Thing. It was when Crisis On Infinite Earths crossed over with the book in issue 46. He felt that the world of Swamp Thing shouldn’t interact with the world of the red and blue tights – and he was right (to a point. I think Swampy does okay in the DCU proper). Swamp Thing was a horror comic and when you have Green Lantern flying in lighting things up the scares tend to disappear rather quickly. This issue led to DC creating their Vertigo line – a play ground for their monsters to romp around in without Superman fucking things up.

And now we have the “DARK” line of the DCnU, of which I, Vampire is a part of. So far this Dark line of comics is walking the thin line between Horror and Heroes and doing a fantastic job of it. Justice League Dark, Frankenstein, Animal Man, and Swamp Thing are all balancing the two different worlds and making it work. The one thing that sets I, Vampire part from these other titles is the absence of Super Heroes.

And I think if super heroes ever do show up in this comic, that will be it’s undoing.

The atmosphere of I, Vampire is completely bleak and somber, but it serves the story that Fialkov and Sorrentino are spinning here. Helped immeasurably by the art, this comic goes WAY beyond what The Dark is all about. Dark? Fuck, this comic is Pitch Black. I would hate to see Red Robin show up in issue 5 and wreck what is happening with this comic. And what is happening is that it is breaking away from the pack. Not necessarily ahead of the pack, but taking it’s own path.

Super heroes have no place in Andrew Bennett’s world.