Review - Blood Brothers #1

"Rise and shine."

Vampires walk among us in the dark. It's helpful for them to inhabit a city like Las Vegas, where they can be up all night and not have anything look amiss. Two vampires up all night and chasing bounties in the city that never sleeps is good for business. Blood Brothers #1 from Dark Horse Comics presents lots of good business.

The first issue is written by Mike Gagerman and Andrew Waller, with art by Evan Shaner, colors by Dan Jackson and letters by Nate Piekos.

Vampires living in Las Vegas makes perfect sense, considering the all night aspect of the city. And it makes perfect sense for Nick and Tree, two vampires living there and making a living as bounty hunters. The two have endured for centuries, rubbing elbows with everyone from Genghis Khan to Michelangelo. They've also made a go of it in the big city, with Nick in love with a mortal woman and a vampire hellbent on bringing the apocalypse, with Nick's unknowing help.

Placing vampires in modern day society isn't really new, but giving them legitimate employment is fairly novel. It makes even more sense that vampires would be bounty hunters and Gagerman and Waller does a great job recounting their experiences as vampires throughout the years. It's entirely convincing (and somewhat lighthearted) that they're living it up in Sin City. Adding in the world destruction twist makes the stakes a little greater and it remains to be seen whether their freewheeling ways will help them fight off the eminent evil.

Shaner's art is somewhat gritty, not really focusing on characters or settings in particular. Panel layouts are fairly simple, but the art does an effective job of showing the past histories of the vampires in question. There are some action sequences and not really a lot of vampires in the full form. The depiction of Las Vegas doesn't really seem too vibrant and most of the action seems to take place in locales that aren't really indicative of the city itself. The art just seems simplistic and looks fairly static.

Blood Brothers #1 is an interesting concept. Clearly, the two brothers are destined for something more than just bounty hunting and how they react to that matter of destiny remains to be seen. Nick is the more relatable of the two vampires and that's something that sort of takes away from the first issue. The work overall though has a very lighthearted and jovial feel to it, making it a rather enjoyable read in certain aspects.

Blood Brothers #1 is in stores now with interiors below.