Blood And Water #3 - A Review

Written by: Judd Winick
Penciled by: Tomm Coker
Inked by: Tomm Coker
Colored by: Jason Wright
Lettered by: Kurt Hathaway
Editor: Mariah Huehner & Heidi MacDonald
Publisher: Vertigo Comics

In a week full of good Judd Winick stories (Green Lantern and Titans/Young Justice Graduation Day in addition to Blood and Water), this was the best. I’ve enjoyed the first two chapters in this series, in which we are introduced to Hepatitis-victim Adam, who is told his life can be saved by his friends Nicky and Josh. They can do this because they are vampires.

The vampires in the world spun by Winick bare little resemblance to the ones in horror movies. Sunlight, holy objects and running water do nothing to repel vampires. Oh, they are a lot more sensitive to light than most and human blood has the same effect on vampires as PCP… but for the most part, you can’t die and can’t get sick. And in this issue, after dealing with the problem of his body rejecting all the organs it no longer needs (with a method that requires a mop and bathtub), Adam is introduced to one of the other benefits of being a vampire. Sex.

Yes, the word is written on the cover. And tempting as it is to make a joke about “now that we have your attention, read this comic”, this issue does discuss sex. Yes, vampires can and will have sex in this reality. They also have the ability to make themselves more attractive to other people and Josh proudly notes he has not gone without since the night he became a vampire. And in a hilarious scene that seems to mock the tendency of some genre writers (Ann Rice in particular) to turn any male who becomes a vampire into a stereotypical gay man, Josh pranks Adam.

Now all of this is pretty interesting in of itself and good fun for those of us who enjoy a good vampire story but like seeing the genre made fun of, like with the now infamous dildo crucifix in Issue #1. Sadly, someone decided that there needed to be more to this than humor and character. Hence we are given a “plot” with some monster from Canada waking up and “hunting” our characters. After two references in two issues, we still have no idea what this creature is and why it has just now woken and traveled from Canada to California to kill vampires. Still, my curiosity is piqued and I cannot wait for the next issue.