Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Doesn't bite, June 26, 2006
"Bite Club," a too-brief miniseries from DC Comics' Vertigo line, introduces readers to the Del Toro family, an undead crime family whose story falls somewhere between "Kindred," "The Sopranos" and "Days of Our Lives."
Eduardo Del Toro is the family patriarch, who reigns over his family and its interests with an iron fist. But, since Eduardo is killed on the very first page, you can bet the story isn't about him. Rather, his family -- a mixed pack of ambition, greed and carnal desire -- steps into the gap left by his death in a struggle to take over the business. But, to the surprise of all, son Leto -- both a vampire and a Catholic priest, believe it or not -- is handed the reins of power. And that doesn't sit well with others of the Del Toro clan, siblings and cousins and family satellites who have a varying array of vices and a similar yen for control.
Collected in digest form, "Bite Club: Die Now, Live Forever" is an action-packed saga that will keep you guessing. New surprises await with every new revelation, and the series of events that unfolds near the end is shockingly twisted -- and impossible to predict. Writers Howard Chaykin and David Tischman combine forces with artist David Hahn to create a satisfyingly different sort of story, a new slant on modern-day vampires that will have readers thirsting for more.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Vampire Crime Syndicate, May 17, 2005
It is a strange world where vampires exist openly in the world. In Miami there are more than 100,000 of them. Many vampires trace back to bites from vampire bats. Vampires can also be made with a bite from a vampire or being born to one. In this world the Del Torro rules the Miami crime world. They are very rich and very influential. A new deal with a pharmaceutical company may enable them to go completely legit.
In this story we follow the members of the Del Toros after the head of the family is murdered at the start. We mostly follow Leto and Risa, brother and sister. One is a catholic priest (a first for vampires) while Risa runs a record company. But both are true to the family name. As the story progresses we meet a very wide range a characters and their foibles, desires, and place in the scheme of things.
The story is pretty good although much of it reads like an introduction of characters with the plot taking back seat. But still, it was a pretty good read although not really memorable. This is collected from the Vertigo mini series and contains quite a bit of nudity, sex, and violence so it is not suitable for many readers. The format is also rather small and some readers will take issue with that.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Almost..., April 26, 2006
The premise is actually pretty good - A Vampire Mafia crossover of sorts. Much like all Vampire books/movies before it, great care is taken to point out how all movies/books/songs/whatever got the legend wrong and this is why their vampires are able to do such-and-such.
Seeing as this is set in Miami, this means that the Vampires walk around during the day and sun-worship like the rest of the residents of the city (David Caruso notwithstanding). People are also aware of the existance of Vampires, but this becomes one of the more convoluded parts of the comic. While the police department has a special vampire section (with one employee from what I can tell), everything else is very much integrated. This would have made some sense if the Vampire aspect was kept a bit more quiet and this was a secrative thing, but it isn't.
I do like the idea of a Vampire-Mafia crossover - it would make your hitmen a lot more useful (they are a tougher breed). In addition, you could easily swear in human members of the "family" via a bite.
They even had some interesting subplots - a sister heavily into the music scene, a brother that had become a priest and a grandson in high school that is incredibly troubled with a goth girl using him just to become a vampire herself.
Unfortunately, much of this is wasted. I realize Bite Club was supposed to be a limited run, but with as much as is introduced early on, I get the feeling that Chaykin and Tischman wanted this to be a long running series but just couldn't sell it to Vertigo. Or, perhaps it was believing in "sex sells" a little too much (peppered with a generous side of senseless violence) that had them just shy of being a brilliant series. I have no problem with this in comics, it's just like anything else - if it starts to feel like the plot is moving along just to get to the next sex scene, things get boring.
There have been other Vampire/Mafia stories before, but this one had some promise - they were close, but not quite. Maybe they thought the allure of both were enough to get past the bumps.
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