In the Maw of "Meh": Mario Acevedo's Killing the Cobra

Well there's good news in Sanguine Diary Land. We have a winner for the giveaway. Jen Snyder of New York, New York won a free copy of the anthology Dark Light, with my story "Blood and Soil." The rest of you will just have to get one for yourselves. It's even free for Kindle if you're an Amazon Prime member. Yay!

Now, on to the rest. Here is my review of review of Mario Acevedo's graphic novel, Killing the Cobra:

In the Maw of "Meh": Mario Acevedo's Killing the Cobra:


Mario Acevedo’s novels are a lot of fun. Each one pits Felix Gomez, a vampire P.I., against absurd characters like lascivious aliens, vampire porn moguls, and mad scientists. And as far as vampires go, Gomez is pretty benevolent. When not drinking goat’s blood, he minimizes the damage to his human victims with hypnosis and saliva that can heal wounds. Gomez is also pretty resourceful, often favoring his wits over brute force. With titles like Jailbait Zombie and X-Rated Bloodsuckers, Acevedo’s novels brim with dark humor and a gritty, noir feel that seem like a great fit for a graphic novel crossover. And I still believe that is true, except that Killing the Cobra abandons the formula that makes the novels work.

As a story, Killing the Cobra is certainly cold-blooded, but in the wrong way. Gomez scowls and punches his way through each frame with none of the twisted humor that makes the novels enjoyable. Instead, Cobra makes Gomez a square-jawed hero who spits macho clichés about playing by his own rules.

The plot is simple enough, and actually too predictable. The Araneum, a sinister vampire syndicate for whom Gomez is a reluctant servant, has assigned him to take down a drug kingpin from Hong Kong. Gomez destroys a massive shipment of heroin, and the kingpin takes revenge by following Gomez to San Francisco and kidnapping his girlfriend. A lot of the story feels rushed, shuffling the plot from one action sequence to another, without building much in between.

Gomez’s relationship with his girlfriend, Qian Ning seems rote. In almost all of the novels, Felix has love interests and Acevedo always makes a little bit of room to develop the characters’ rapport. One scene in X-Rated Bloodsuckers, where a woman holds his hand and he has to pretend that her silver ring doesn’t hurt him, is a perfect example. Qian Ning is painted with too many broad strokes: she’s ‘good’ because she’s an ex-prostitute who runs a shelter for women escaping the sex industry. Beyond that, though, there’s very little to her character. This is too bad, a real missed opportunity for adding complexity to the plot.

Gomez is also drawn too broadly, despite the fact that the graphic novel is at its best when describing his experiences of the Iraq War. But for most of the story, Gomez just talks tough, telling thugs to mind their manners or reminding his contacts at the Araneum that he does things his way. Acevedo’s novels are not what one would call nuanced, but they work just fine. In the novels, Acevedo explains Gomez’s scars from the war and describes the parameters of his vampirism without slowing the plot. In Killing the Cobra, he not only changes the parameters, but explains things with needless redundancy. The Felix Gomez of the graphic novel completely abstains from human blood, which robs the character of a lot of interesting ambiguity. Practically every scene in Killing the Cobra explains that he’s a vampire, as if fangs, super strength, and imperviousness to bullets do not adequately convey this. On two separate occasions, it is explained that Araneum is latin for spider web. And this is one of those things that readers should be allowed to look up on their own.

I am way past the age where I take pleasure in harsh criticism, and it gives me no joy that Killing the Cobra falls flat. Honestly, I was looking forward to reading it. In fairness to Acevedo, the story was released in serial issues before being compiled into a graphic novel, so it’s entirely possible that poor sales or some other tremor of the publishing world cut the project short. If that’s the case, then it would explain why so many of the relationships lack depth and some of the more intriguing premises—like Qian Ning’s women’s shelter—were not adequately explored. But the dumbing down of Felix Gomez is still a disappointing mystery. Maybe Acevedo just didn’t know how to tell a story in a different medium. Either way, if you’re a fan of the novels, don’t bother with Killing the Cobra. And if you’ve never read Mario Acevedo, pick up Jailbait Zombie. It’s a lot of fun.