The story comes to a close.
Creative Staff:
Story: Nancy A. Collins, Steve Niles
Art: Jack Jadson, Eman Casallos
What They Say:
Vampirella is shocked when she meets the pun-happy Storyteller face-to-face, only to end up hip-deep in alligators in Steve Niles’ (Thirty Days of Night, Army of Darkness, October Faction) swamp-monster retelling of “The Frog Prince”. Then, in Nancy A. Collins’ (Vampirella, Sunglasses After Dark, Swamp Thing) twisted take on “Sleeping Beauty”, a major character from the original Warren run is reintroduced when Vampirella finally discovers the true identity of her mysterious doppelganger and learns about her hidden connection to the enchanted book she is trapped inside in a weird and wicked resolution that ties in with the on-going monthly title-provided Vampi can escape a castle full of walking dead that have awoken from their centuries-long slumber with a royal appetite…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Feary Tales series comes to its conclusion here and offers up some new things for the main series to tackle, which is an element that does in the end give this series a bit more weight. The stories have been mixed, as one would expect of an anthology type of this nature, but more often than not it’s been fun to watch Vampirella work through these different stories and interpretations with some pretty solid creators working it all together. Having all of that with the mysterious Storyteller operating in the background, providing puns and fun along the way, kept it moving well and providing the right mix of fear and fun. But now that reveals are here as Vampirella has to go through the final two stories and the truth in the real world.
The first tale thrusts her into the swamplands after she learns that she’s the storyteller herself, being the new rightful keeper of the Feary Tales, which leaves her rather unsettled for obvious reasons. Providing a kind of Cinderella take in the swamp with a massive swamp creature that needs a kiss in order to be restored to his true form, the little king of the swamp and his family is where Vampirella finds refuge in her attempt at figuring out what’s going on and how to solve the tale. There’s some sharp dialogue in there that’s fun, but it gets really amusing as we get your bayou type characters in a kind of weird almost inter-species romance going on with some surprisingly tender moments. At least until the gator-creature starts talking about going to bed, and the young woman kicks the crap out of him, which is what he really needed to be turned back into the handsome prince.
But it’s the rest of the book that really is exciting with potential. When Vampirella discovers her blonde doppelganger, it turns out that the woman is actually Draculina, her twin sister. What twin sister? As it turns out, Draculina was thrust into the Feary Tales by her mother ages ago as she was too much like her father, and while Draculina went through the stories trying to survive, she ended up in one that caused her to be put to sleep for the ages. But now she’s free and out of the book and a part of Vampirella’s world again, which when Vampirella herself gets out of there, lets Coleridge know that it’s not a good thing. The Feary Tales is an interesting piece that you can imagine Vampirella wanting to dispose of considering what it can do, but it’s also potentially quite useful. And you have to wonder what Drago was really thinking in holding onto it all this time.
In Summary:
Having not read the old Warren books, Draculina is new to me and I suspect her appearance here will have her a little bit different and maybe a touch modernized, so it’s easy to work with. Working the story of how their mother essentially wiped her for existence is familiar, but it’s done well and it’s just one more thing for Vampirella to have to deal with. I definitely enjoyed the two tales here that are included beyond all of this revelation material, but I was also glad to see a firm connection to the main book that Collins is writing here at the end to reinforce that this will likely have an impact there at some point. This series was a lot of fun in general just seeing the various creative teams at work and the various fairy tales used in new ways while also connecting to elements of the larger world of Vampirella over the decades. A thoroughly enjoyable miniseries.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: February 18th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
