Reviewer: Mathan “Garlic Lover” Erhardt
Story Title: Thou Shalt Not Take The Lord’s Name In Vein
Written by: Howard Chaykin & David Tischman
Penciled and Inked by: David Hahn
Lettered by: Jared K. Fletcher
Colored by: Brian Miller
Cover by: Frank Quitely
Editor: Shelly Bond
Publisher: Vertigo DC Comics
Last issue had Danny, the youngest Del Toro losing his virginity to a friend and giving her the old vampire bite and Carrie Stein, Leto Del Toro’s old flame, getting caught in an attack meant for Leto.
This issue begins with Detective Fortine, of the Vampire Crimes Unit, interrogating Carrie in her hospital bed. He attempts to use his leverage over her to get her to roll over on the Del Toro family. Meanwhile Leto and Risa, his record mogul sister, share a tender moment open up to each other.
At school, Danny finds out that the girl he lost his virginity to was using him so she could become a vampire and lose weight. Upon finding this out, Danny pulls out the gun he took from his grandfathe’s room (way back in #1) and shoots a fellow student point blank.
Leto then goes to confront the person responsible for his fathe’s death. Their death is an unpleasant one, but Leto finally gets his answers, and then he renounces his faith. Back at Carrie’s apartment she talks to the person responsible for her reappearance in Leto’s life and demands more money for her trouble. Of course she’s unaware that there crib is bugged by V.CU.
Back at school, Eddie, brother of Risa and Leto, and father of Danny, talks his son down from the edge, and finally shows Danny some compassion. Risa faces off with her loan shark, in a brutal fashion. And just when Leto accepts his role as head of the Del Toro family, he may be getting into bed with something what will bring about his downfall.
The world that Chaykin and Tischman have created is so real. The way Danny’s girl disses him after she got what she wanted was brutal, but realistic. Leto finally accepting his fate is done with equal reality. This book is full of the goodness that Chaykin and Tischman fill all of their work with. And I love the narration.
Hahn continues to impress. The scene between Risa and Leto is touching and dramatic. Watching Danny turn from heartbroken to killer is chilling, as is Leto’s torture of the person responsible for his fathe’s death. And Leto’s new look in the end of the book is a nice visualization of the transformation.
