True darkness lies in Hollywood.
Creative Staff:
Story: Kate Leth
Art: Eman Casallos
Colors:
What They Say:
Vampirella takes Hollywood in this new adventure of the classic demon-hunting, monster-slaying, thrill-seeking vampire queen. When her stately manor is attacked, she begins to unravel a plot as old as the silver screen, discovering what monsters really lurk in the shadows of the City of Angels.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After a very fun series closed out last year and a slew of miniseries and one-shots that Dynamite produced, I was a bit wary of getting back into the Vampirella world. A couple of things with the new series had me cautious from the start where we had a lot of material built up and all I could see was a potential full on reboot. And when we got the cover artwork reveal for it I just found myself wondering if they really were going for the cute route for it. I had my issues with the artwork in previous series pretty regularly in terms of design and coloring, but this just felt too cartoonish. Thankfully, both main concerns are washed away on page one as what we get here is a continuation in a new direction and a strong artist in Eman Casallos combined with solid coloring from Valentina Pinto.
With the previous series ending with Vampirella essentially back in control of her own destiny, she’s opted to land in Hollywood Hills of all places. Coleridge, her butler of sorts from the previous arc that she gained, has found her an appropriately spooky house to set up in and she’s certainly well taken care of there with what he’s done. Coming back to the US without any shackles and tied to her werewolf significant other in Tristan, they’re looking for some down time after the big events and just settling into the new place. Amusingly, it doesn’t take long for things to turn bad as there’s an attack on the house from a masked person. It’s not exactly threatening or hard work for Vampirella to defeat him, but with his body turning to dust we get the reveal that someone named Slade is behind this. All we know is that she’s a mysterious woman in power in Hollywood since the 30’s and still looks fantastic.
We get a look at Slade through a subplot here that’s her basically bringing out background actors and more to the deep woods in the middle of the night for acting jobs that instead run like a creatures of the night hunger games. There’s not a lot of depth here but it hits the ground running and starts the book off in a good way. Using it to introduce us to Slade before she deals with Vampirella is spot on and it adds to her overall mystery. We also get some of that when Vampi and Tristan go clubbing to seek answers and end up gaining an agent in the mix since the whole backyard encounter was caught on social media. We’ve had touches of this before, but Leth’s script is certainly taking us into the present day in an interesting to modernize and work Vampi and her team in a smart way. Coming off the Aliens/Vampirella story you can easily see them working a more public role for this creature of the night and all the right pieces are falling into place here.
In Summary:
I’m being more cautious than I should be but Leth and Casallos basically knock it out of the park here. The team has put together a smooth book with lots going on that doesn’t feel crowded but doesn’t feel rushed either. It’s not a light read as it sets things up for what’s to come while also working on what was built before from Nancy A. Collins’ run – which as a big fan of that series is more important that I realized it would be. Leth captures the main trio well that I’d been reading about before and finally made me engage in the Vampi/Tristan relationship while adding more love for Coleridge. Casallos definitely is a standout here in his work from layouts to design and the updated costume. I know it’ll get grief from some quarters but we know Vampi will pull out the classic from time to time as needed. I like the new updated costume and the reasoning for it as things are changing here. This is a very solid book that has wiped away my concerns and turned me into an excited fan once again.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: March 2nd, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
