Some villains just can’t stay dead.
Creative Staff:
Story: Amy Chu
Art: Laura Sanapo, Giuseppe Cafaro
Colorist: Mohan
Letterer: Taylor Esposito, Rieanna Bates
What They Say:
Jack is BACK! And the Pulaski Pharma billionaire is ready for REVENGE. Now Vampirella is caught between saving her friends or Drakulon, her home planet. But is it too late?!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The penultimate issue of the series arrives just a few months after the last one came out at the end of March but we’re glad to get back into it. Amy Chu has worked the back half storyline pretty well so that even with the gap it was quick and easy to get back into the series and prepare for the end. It does help that it’s filled with a lot of action but she also makes it clear the stakes. The book also delivers in the art department of Laura Sanapo, aided by Giuseppe Cafaro for this issue, keeps everything moving smoothly as we get a lot of different things going on and a truly diverse cast of characters from different properties. It continues to blend together well and I’m already lamenting the end of it that’s coming.
With everyone on Drakulon now, the twist that was expected has come into play in that Jack is here and he’s all cyborging up in order to become stronger, matching body with his “supersmart” mind. And he’s intent on eliminating all the threats to him here because as much interest as he had in vampiric blood, there’s also a slew of metal elements he wants here and has built a robot army to take it that’s now being unleashed. That throws everything into chaos and lots and lots of action. There are some fun bits along the way, such as Victor’s relation to him and all, but I like that we see the escape route set up with Dilton fixing an old game system to become a portal if they can find power for it. Which is exactly where Draculina set up her blood farm with the people that Jack sent here to keep the Drakulon’s alive while he did his research.
The bulk of what we get is Draculina and Vampirella teaming up to deal with Jack, realizing that they really do need to be united on this front. It’s a long time in coming as these things go but once they’re on the same page it’s appealing in how it’s presented. With Sonja getting in the mix as well with some helpful borrowed wings, it gives us what we want from a fight with Jack in that most of its focus are on the leading ladies and how they cope with going up against him and the way his abilities allow him to get pretty creative. It’s not something that goes smoothly but I really like the presentation of it set against Drakulon itself and some possible prophecy related material that has to do with Vampirella. It hits the right notes and while it doesn’t focus on anyone exclusively, you feel like everyone gets a good shot of attention.
In Summary:
I’ve really enjoyed this run overall and while the first half of the series may have worked for me better overall, the back half run has been a lot of fun as well as we ended up on Drakulon with everyone. It’s such a strange grouping of characters that you can’t help but to enjoy the way it plays out, even if some like Bettie and Veronica get the shorter end of the stick with this installment. As it’s the penultimate installment, what we get here is largely about the action and it hits those marks quite well with great artwork and enough story material to make it stick – and draw you back in for the finale to see what’s going to happen to bring it to a close.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: July 15th, 2020
MSRP: $3.99
