VATICAN CITY #3 (OF 3)
DARK HORSE COMICS/Netflix
STORY: Mark Millar
ART: Per Berg
COLORS: Per Berg
LETTERS: Per Berg
EDITOR: Daniel Chabon
EDITORIAL: Sarah Unwin
COVER: Per Berg
VARIANT COVER ARTIST: Per Berg
32pp, Color, $5.99 U.S. (June 2025)
Rating: 18+
Vatican City created by Mark Millar at Netflix
Vatican City is a three-issue Millarworld miniseries from Dark Horse Comics. It is created and written by Mark Millar and drawn, colored, and lettered by Per Berg. Vatican City is set in a world overrun by vampires, except for Vatican City, which is the main target of the vampires.
Vatican City finds the vampire race revealing itself for the first time in ages. Their goal is “Vatican City,” the independent city-state within Rome, Italy that is the government of the “Holy See” (the Pope and the Papacy). Now, Guido Cavelti, recently of the Swiss Air Force, leads the human resistance to an invasion of monsters determined to get something that is buried deep beneath Vatican City.
Vatican City #3 opens in Vatican City, Rome. Guido Cavelti believes that he now has some leverage to save the remaining humans inside the iconic Vatican church, St Peter's Basilica, from the vampire horde that surrounds the Vatican. That leverage exists in the form of the sarcophagus that holds the body of “Gel-Gorge-Eh,” the vampire queen, and the vampires want that body in order to revive her.
However, things don't go as expected for either these last few humans or the vampires. Can prayer save the day?
THE LOWDOWN: This is the second time that I have been on any kind of list that provides PDF copies of titles published by Dark Horse Comics. The latest received is Vatican City #3.
As I expected, writer Mark Millar throws this huge curve ball in this final issue of Vatican City. Call it a shocker, twist, or surprise, but it completely wrecked my expectations. How this narrative resolves is also a big surprise. The point is that Millar once again delivers sterling genre entertainment.
Per Berg (also known as Per Darwin Berg or by the pen name, “Narwhal”) delivers a finale that is both dreamlike and surreal. His art, colors, and letters are both representational and impressionistic, which, from the beginning, allowed Berg to depict a world that was rapidly shifting from the natural to the supernatural. He created a sense of uncertainty in a genre – vampire fiction – in which many storytellers often try to be literal and conservative even in the most fantastic scenarios. Here, instead, Berg offers the unusual.
Millar and Berg gave readers a reason to come back for the third issue, and now, they've given us a reason to come back for the trade paperback collection, which is due this fall. I suggest that you, dear readers, read this anyway you can.
I READS YOU RECOMMENDS: Fans of Mark Millar, of vampire comic books, and of horror apocalypse will want to read Vatican City.
A
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
https://www.mrmarkmillar.com/
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