I knew absolutely nothing about this story heading in, except that it involved vampires attacking a town up in northern Alaska where the sun doesn't rise for 30 days. Oh, and that it was made into a movie.
Turns out, there isn't much more to know. The story itself is pretty simple. In about eighty pages, Niles tells a story of a town being attacked, and slaughtered, a small group of people hiding for safety, and a random guy flying over in a helicopter to get killed. There really isn't much more there. None of the characters spend enough time doing anything for you to really care about them at all. With more pages, maybe something like V for Vendetta, there might have been more chance for a deeper more interesting story. As is, it's pretty forgettable.
The art doesn't help either. I'm sure it might appeal to someone, but it was far to blurred and abstract for me. More than half the panes I couldn't even tell what was going on. One of the reasons I enjoy graphic novels is for the beautiful art. And this just didn't work for me on any level.
As for the vampires... Well they are pretty run of the mill vampires. With one rather disappointing exception. Niles does take some time to paint a particular vampire as being a true BA kick butt vampire master. But apparently in Niles' take on vampires, someone who just turned five minutes ago is just as powerful as an ancient vampire lord. And can pretty easily kick his butt. So even the end holds no real suspense or danger.
Overall this graphic novel barely held my interest for the 80 pages it ran. I can't see myself giving any of the others in the series a shot. Or the movie for that matter.
I agree with everything you said. I knew the premise and it sounded pretty cool. But they stuck with the premise and didn't add layers or expand on it at all. They kept it too simple. No depth of characters, a body count full of people we don't know or care about, and a vampire that's 5 minutes old kills Granddaddy vampire. I wanted more from this story. I think I'll check out the movie just to see if they added any more to the story.
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