The storyteller has a few more tales to tell
Creative Staff:
Story: Nancy A. Collins, Elaine Lee, Joe R. Lansdale, Keith Landsdale
Art: Jack Jadson, Elmo Eklabuz, Eman Casallos
What They Say:
Vampirella is still trapped inside the nightmarish netherworld of the Feary Tales book, tormented by the disembodied voice of the mysterious Storyteller, and her only hope of escaping is if she can survive the ghoulish mix-ups of familiar nursery tales until she reaches the last story. But first she must weather Stephen R. Bissette (Swamp Thing) and Denis St. John’s (Monster Pie) macabre re-imagining of the classic Betty Boop version of “Snow White”, then help track down a little missing mermaid in Gail Simone’s (Red Sonja) “Thirsty, Thirsty Town”.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
There is, strangely enough, something that’s right about watching Vampirella ride a shark. As she gets tossed about from story to story by the mysterious Storyteller, we’ve had a lot of weird tales so far. While the lengthier stories are definitely intriguing in how they explore things and provide a challenge for Vampirella, the connecting bits for a page or two are sometimes even more intriguing, such as the start here with an array off creatures that she gets involved with, especially as it deals with their intense desire to not hear any spoilers. But that shark, man, that shark! It’s pure weird in a really great way.
The opening tale has her coming into a kind of 1950’s countryside world where her car has been ditched alongside the road and she has to deal with three brothers, Lonnie, Donnie and Ronnie, to try and get it take care of. They’re all strong guys and go out in the middle of the night to figure it all out, but it also turns out that they’re werebears and things are about to get bad because of the moon. The bulk of it turns into a fight, since their special drink that helps them has had a change that isn’t quite effective, but we also get a taste of what might help Vampirella in all of this. When they mention a blonde woman like her who had come through recently, it sets off all sorts of interest by Vampirella and she wants to know more. Of course, the Storyteller isn’t going to allow that to happen. The action within it is really fun to watch as she deals with the three of them in their bear form and we get the whole Goldilocks aspect in a really fun way done here before she gets tossed onto the next story.
With the second story here, we get Vampirella in a very different position from other tales so far as she’s thrown to Grandma’s House where she’s auditioning to be a stripper at the club there. It’s a dank and seedy place and Grandma is definitely interesting with her quasi-Western style set in this Louisiana joint. The story focuses on the competitive nature of the girls, and Vampy’s own interest in starting right away, while also delving into a string of murders that have been going on lately with the full moon. With that as the recurrent theme of the issue, seeing her play detective in between stripping down and dressing up is fun, particularly as there are competitive moments to be had here. It’s a slow build overall but it’s populated with some interesting characters and a great turn by Vampirella herself as she feels more invested in the story this time around as opposed to commenting on it regularly as a third party participant.
In Summary:
The Feary Tales continue on and we get a pair of fun full moon themed ones this time around. While the Storyteller proves even more so here that they’re basically not going to be any help or provide any real clues until the last chapter, what it does it make it easier to just enjoy the individual tales and the creative teams involved in each of them. Vampirella riding a check? Werebears? Stripper-ella? All things that definitely fit within the weird worlds that Vampirella can inhabit, but outside of what the current ongoing series allows. So it’s fun, campy and utterly comical at times to watch unfold. But it balances it with dark and violent as well with a good dose of sexiness and sexuality. Another very fun installment overall.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: December 17th, 2014
MSRP: $3.99
