Faerber/Bueno’s vampire miniseries concludes with Hope and Liam entering Cromeyer’s lair to find a cure and kick some ass. Is it good?
Graveyard Shift #4 (Image Comics)
Cromeyer is in the middle of seducing a young lady when a henchman interrupts to inform him of their new hostages. While Liam and the unnamed girl are taken away, Hope seems to have fallen under Cromeyer’s spell. Fortunately, she retains enough of her free will to ask some important questions about her new condition…and gets some interesting answers.
Meanwhile, Liam proceeds to kick ass super soaker style. He fights his way back to Hope, leading to a confrontation that sees her having to decide what she’s willing to do for her heart along with her own survival.
Is It Good?
One thing I really liked about this series was how atypical it was from the usual/tired vampire fare. Unfortunately, Faeber falls back into it the genre blueprint for the finale, giving us a standard (but well executed) series of action scenes. We’re also left with a lot of unanswered questions, which is a little frustrating from a reader’s viewpoint for a four issue miniseries. I’m guessing that he’ll want to come back to this universe at some point (and I hope he does), but the whole ‘cure or no cure’ issue deserved a lot more resolution than we got.
Faerber’s dialogue/chemistry between Hope and Liam is still great, though, particularly the last few pages. There’s also a really neat final shot with some easter eggs for the those us who liked vampire fiction way before it turned into the sparkly mess it is now.
As far as the art goes, it’s Fran Bueno’s best issue of the series. Not only does he do a great job with the action sequences, but his rendering of Cromeyer is deliciously creepy.
When it’s all said and done, Graveyard Shift is an enjoyable limited series, but might have worked better as an ongoing.
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