And another Vampirella series down.
Creative Staff:
Story: Kate Leth
Art: Eman Casallos
Colors: Valentina Pinto
Letters: Erica Schultz
What They Say:
After the harrowing conclusion of our first arc, Vampirella needs a break – not that it means she’ll get one! A horror hostess gig goes awry in this stand-alone adventure tale of Weird Hollywood!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Dynamite Entertainment has thrown a lot of Vampirella series at fans over the last couple of years with what I thought was a solid and enjoyable main series and a number of miniseries. The relaunch earlier this year of this series with Kate Leth and Eman Casallos got a lot of attention as several female characters were getting a relaunch and there’s been a lot to like. Vampirella, unfortunately, found itself from being announced as an ongoing series to being a six issue series. With the book concluding its main arc the last time around, this one essentially feels like filler just to pad out to a trade collection as even the usual great Eman Casallos artwork feels weak, rushed, and pretty rough in a lot of places. Which is really unfortunate.
With what we get here it’s pretty forgettable overall and doesn’t really add much of anything. While Vampirella is looking to get out of the spotlight more, she’s saving that for tomorrow and intends to enjoy Halloween by throwing a big bash with a classic movie for a huge audience in an outdoor amphitheater. With lots of costumes, small parts for most of the supporting cast, and a little bit of trouble along the way, it’s pretty empty with some light moments along the way. The main trouble comes in the form of an human/insect character that’s come to the place and has a crush on Vampi, which means the place turns to a bit of a chaos, especially since he bleeds acid. It’s just a sorta there event that doesn’t work all that well and just basically happens. Even the way that all the characters kind of acknowledge how his poorly handled crush plays out view it as something cute. It’s just weird.
In Summary:
As for why this series didn’t work, everyone with an agenda or belief of another groups agenda is going to toss blame around. For me, it was just weak storytelling. I didn’t mind the costume as changes to that are common for most long running properties and a break from the norm isn’t a bad thing. But the opening storyline here simply didn’t engage and I know that I was fairly well caught up in what the previous series was doing, so there was a bit of a jarring change from one to the other, though I was glad Kate Leth carried over the characters that were used and some of the concepts. Here’s hoping that the next iteration of Vampirella works for people better as there’s always great stories to tell with this character and her world. It just needs something better and more meaningful with what these characters need to do.
Grade: C
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: August 10th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
