Mother’s can so easily get in our heads.
Creative Staff:
Story: Christopher Priest
Art: Ergun Gundu
Letterer: Willie Schubert
What They Say:
Vampirella’s struggle to deal with the complex emotional consequences of a major disaster caused by her enemies is exacerbated by an unexpected visit from her mother, Lilith, with whom Vampi has a complicated relationship. But has the Mother of All Vampires come to help or destroy her daughter? And will Vampirella’s hapless therapist survive the encounter?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening installment of this new Vampirella series didn’t really endear me to it as the time spent with Vampirella’s therapist, Chary, was just so off-putting and, well, unlike every therapist out there in reality. Priest had some interesting moments with the rest of the book and like this one I enjoyed more seeing Vampi away from the therapist and engaging with the world. I’m still not sure where the book wants to go but it moves better this time around with less Chary. It doesn’t hurt that Gundu’s artwork is strong as it’s a big saving grace here as he tries to keep up with Priest’s script and story jumps that have their moments working and not working. I really like what Gundu does with costume designs here and that makes for an engaging book by that alone.
The book this time around focuses more on the events of a year ago with Vampirella struggling after what her mother Lilith had said to her about wasting her life. That’s gotten her off the chair and doing something to get rid of evil in the world, in a small scale, as she mostly deals with street-level bad guys. The bodies have piled up with well over a thousand dead but it’s not really changing anything in the big picture. We see the back and forth between her and Chary over it, especially when it delves into talk of god and her not really being evil, while also tackling again some of the aspects of what he believes her illness to be in believing that she’s a vampire from outer space. It’s a bit of a tiring approach because unless there’s some grand switcheroo at the end of this series about where she’s from, it’s just a story point that’s not going to connect since we know the truth.
There are two interesting plots that move through this book beyond that, however. The first is that after a bad experience at speed-dating, Vampi gets picked up by a woman in an Uber who she ends up spending some amount of time with and is completely truthful with when it comes to what she is – though she keeps her from seeing the vampire side reality. It’s good to see her getting some physical and emotional contact even if it’s not expected to go far. I don’t think we even get her name. The other is the temporarily limited team-up she’s got with a group of nuns that serve as executioners for the church. Most aren’t in favor of working with Vampirella because she is a vampire but they also can’t prove that she’s not really a vampire and more an alien, which gives them an out. She’s great at leading them to bigger evils to deal with, such as a satanic cult that’s right out of Suspira here, and that makes for a lot of great violence and crude sexuality for the book to engage with.
In Summary:
I love Vampirella as a character and I’m interested in seeing where Priest goes with all of this but there’s such a layer of uncertainty from that first issue that I know I’m being overly cautious with it. The idea of her doing something isn’t a new one but it’s a matter of what she does that matters. Right now, it feels very small and localized, though that works well for her keeping in touch with humanity and feeling alive. The big picture storyline is still elusive, however, and I’m curious where it intends to go. While I wait to see what the intent is here I’m at least enjoying what we get from Gundu as his artwork is strong, especially with the color design. There’s a great cohesiveness to it and I love all the angles and viewing placement that we get which feels like it’s not what we normally get, especially for a character like Vampi.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: August 21st, 2019
MSRP: $3.99
