In search of the Tomb of Vampirella!
Creative Staff:
Story: Paul Cornell
Art: Jimmy Broxton
Colors: Jimmy Broxton
Letterer: Travis Lanham
What They Say:
Beginning a new and VERY different direction! Vampirella was last spotted in 2016 doing what she does best—defending the world from threats both mystic and evil. She hasn’t been seen since. Now, over a thousand years later, she’s poised to make her fateful return, but the world that awaits her is unlike anything she might expect—or want to defend! Written by acclaimed comics, novel and television writer Paul Cornell (This Damned Band, Doctor Who) and illustrated by the masterful Jimmy Broxton (Goldtiger, Knight & Squire), it’s the start of an adventure for Vampirella unlike any she’s had in her long and storied history. Don’t miss the train before it leaves the station!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
While it’s only been in the last couple of years that I got into Vampirella from Dynamite, I’ve enjoyed a good bit of the ongoing material and the spinoff miniseries with all its fun. I struggled with the previous short run series and that’s left me really curious to see how this one would go. I’ve not read a lot of Paul Cornell’s work but am certainly familiar with it and it’s my first experience with Jimmy Broxton, which is definitely not going to be my last. As a cheap/free relaunch to entice people into the new ongoing, I like what Dynamite is doing there and hope it works, especially since there’s a lot of potential with what this team is looking to do from these first few fleeting pages.
Keeping in mind that everything here could certainly be a dream of some sort based on the construct setup, the franchise has moved into some far flung future where the world has drastically changed. We only get a sliver of it from the three human characters that are searching for the Tomb of Vampirella while trying to avoid what it is that dominates the world, some flying shadowed figures we only see briefly before one of the trio sacrifices themselves so the other two can make their way into the caves. It’s here that we see the scale of time that has gone on with the tomb of Vampirella being very far down and her decay significant. That she can come back isn’t too much of a surprise considering what we’ve seen of others of her nature over time and their decay, but the two sacrifice themselves fully for her and simply leave a book that seem like prophecies and stories to her as opposed to reality. But, owing to her nature, she’s not one to back down from anything and you get a feral kind of intrigue coming from her in wanting to know more…
In Summary:
I really like the character of Vampirella and this method of moving her (possibly) far into the future to explore her in a new place is welcome. Cornell has a bit of a slow build approach to it here and it takes a few pages to get into sync with it after the other recent series but it comes together well and even better on a second read through. Broxton’s work is solid here with some great color design and I love the flow of the panels, especially the descent and discovery underground. What this book does is leave me really curious as to the truth of it, the reality of the world as it stands, and what happened to Vampirella to put her where she is at the start of this. And that has me excited to see what’s to come.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: February 1st, 2017
MSRP: $0.25 (Free on ComiXology)
