Setting up the side stories.
Creative Staff:
Story: Nancy A. Collins
Art: Dave Acosta
What They Say:
A team-up set up by SWORDS OF SORROW’s Gail Simone, featuring the writer that she hand-picked: Nancy A. Collins! Vampirella travels to Southern California to hunt down a supernatural serial killer known as the Pacifica Slasher, only to find herself transported to an alternate reality where there’s no such things as vampires, demons, and magic. But, as the most dangerous woman in the world, vigilante Jennifer Blood knows, that doesn’t mean monsters don’t exist. Does the weirdly shaped sword presented to her by the mysterious being called The Courier hold the key to returning Vampirella to her own universe? Or will she be forced to live and die in L.A.?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After giving us the first installment of the main series and a little prelude piece that lead into things for the opposing side, the Swords of Sorrow event gets moving with some of the character pairings. The first one to come across brings us Vampirella and Jennifer Blood, which is written by Vampirella ongoing writer Nancy A. Collins, and illustrated by Dave Acosta. Though I haven’t read any Jennifer Blood books, this one fits right in with the ongoing Vampirella series and having that bit of continuity is definitely a plus in making this feel like it’s properly connecting to the various characters and their worlds while blending them together in fun ways. It’s simple and straightforward in that, and with Vampirella having already experienced a bit of it, it’s an easy segue.
This issue is a bit of a difficult one to digest though, even if I will say that it is mostly doing what it needs to do. Giving us the story initially with Vampirella chasing after a killer in the SoCal area that’s known as the Pacifica Slasher, we see just how fast that person operates and how Vampirella deals with it. It’s smooth, has some nice action and clues you in to her approach well enough. And it also launches us into the bigger worlds that exist as the slasher is able to leap through a dimensional wormhole where he escapes into another world. Vampirella giving chase without thinking of the consequences is standard fare, and we do get a touch of seeing others involved in this, from Lady Rawhide to Deja Thoras and a little Jungle Girl. The quick primer and intro for Vampirella works well.
It’s the rest of it that just felt like too much for me. With Vampirella ending up in Jennifer Blood’s world, Vampy is off panel for awhile and we get Jennifer searching for the Anaheim Ripper, the equivalent of the Pacifica Slasher here. What this launches us into is six or seven pages of her origin story. Admittedly, to me, she’s less well known than Vampirella, so exposing her past has the intent of getting people interested in her books. But it’s just so much exposition, and so much backstory, that it slows the flow to a crawl until Vampirella eventually lands in this world and starts figuring out what’s going on, where she meets The Traveller that will bring her to the main storyline, while also continuing the adventure with Jennifer Blood in her world. This has some decent action following from it as we see the two of them dealing with the slasher/ripper from different approaches, which clues them in on the surreal side of the world, but it takes time for the book to get its momentum going again after all the exposition.
In Summary:
With some interesting pairings coming up for the Swords of Sorrow spinoff pieces, there’s a lot of potential for interesting tales to be told in the larger context. Since Vampirella is a character that I’ve enjoyed a fair bit of the last couple of years, particularly under Nancy Collins’ guidance, I was definitely interested in this one. The book does set the tale in motion and plays to the first sword entering her hands, and it showcases some of the world traveling aspects that are being played with here. But it also has to deal with large turn in bringing us Jennifer Blood’s story, to the point where it does bog things down and just comes across as too much. It’s a necessary evil for those unfamiliar with the character, which I am, but it just shook the tone of the book too much for it to feel really engaging because of how it unfolded. I’m still definitely looking forward to more though and seeing what these two are like when they’re working hand in hand.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: May 13th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
