Summary: Melmoth escapes into the depths of Gotham as Frankenstein assembles his team.
Plot: While the majority of the book was focused on a rather perfunctory gathering of the team there were scenes here that really shined and gave me hope for the the future of the book. Although I tend to dislike the level of wanton death displayed here however one scene that played off of that with Lady Clayface was pretty excellent as her reaction to one of her "feathers" dying was a really interesting look into her sense of identity. On top of that I really enjoyed the scene with Waylon Jones, I don't know if it's the fact that I only recently went through my own unemployment issues or not but I really empathized with his own issues finding a job, and the ability to make us connect with a monster like Croc is pretty great.
Art: While I liked the introduction of the Red Phantom, his actual visual design lacked a real sense of nuance. Rather than giving him his own unique look Nahuelpan just made him a pretty standard demon which is kind of boring, but outside of that his sense of atmosphere was pretty solid which is a plus in a horror book.
Grade:6+/10

Summary: Aboard a new, experimental Star Destroyer a monster stalks Tarkin.
Plot: I said before that in the previous Castle Vader the stories tended to up and down and I was expecting the same kind of uneveness here and the first issue kind of bore that out but while that first entry may have been a down well this one was definitely an up. Featuring a previous frankenstein like bio-weapon seeking revenge the story felt like a truly classic EC horror story where after building menace and tearing up scenery for most of the story the monster gets a sympathetic turn at the end.
Art: Not only do we get the ever amazing Francavilla in this issue but we also get treated to the even more stunning Kelly Jones! I love his work and he's always done great with horror so he fits in perfectly here. 
Grade:10/10

Summary: Vampires,were-owls, zombie-worms, ghosts and killer clowns appear in droves in this Halloween Special.  
The Meat: I've said it plenty of times before, I'm a big fan of anthologies. Because of their nature of having multiple features it's easy to have ups and downs in terms of your individual reading enjoyment but I love them anyway and over the last few years I've really come to love DC's halloween specials and this year is no different. We start with  a new entry to the Batman Red Rain universe with the short “Nightmare Mist,” While I had some trepidation about returning to this world, as I felt it had really received a solid ending the story manages to give new life to the vampiric take on Batman, giving us somewhat more altruistic characterization but retaining that monstrous taste we know and love. What really made it shine though was Rafael Albuquerque’s gorgeous artwork coupled with the pulp infused coloring of Dave Mccain, which gave it a great sense of character in it's own right.
   Coming in after the wake of Batman was “The Footsteps of the Old Worm”. I've never been much of a fan of the Atom and had no idea there was a new character under the mask (Ryan Choi) but despite that I think this may just have been my favorite feature as it truly read like an honest to god Lovecraft story. Adding to that old world charm was  Dan Watters’ choice to use Choi’s journal entries to tell the tale, which gave us limited insight and fewer answers which is often where  horror lies, in the unexplained. And there were worms. Creepy worms reanimating a skeleton. Pure nightmare fuel if you ask me.
    Although those first two features started out strong they weren't all as great; the adventures of Zatana and Harley were pretty dull, and despite Phil Hester's awesome artwork(seriously that guy needs more work!) the Martian Manhunter story didn't feel fleshed out enough, and the less said about the green lantern story the better, but that's the way anthologies go you have to take the good with the bad and although weak in the middle it ended with a bang with a fantastic Deadman story and in Hell is for Dreamers,” we got the closest thing to a classic Hellblazer since like 2005. John Constantine’s narration has a bitterness to it that is very reminiscent of his classic incarnation and although the story itself is simple it's none the less effective.
Still and all, this was a fantastic read and I just keep hoping we get more anthologies like this more often in the future.
Grade:10/10