Vampirella being a weepy drunk tracks.
Creative Staff:
Story: Christos Gage
Art: Marc Borstel
Colors: Jordie Escuin Llorach
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
What They Say:
Nyx once killed Vampirella. More recently, they were tenuous allies. When their paths cross again, will it be as friends, enemies, somewhere in between, or all the above? How does Vampirella fit into Nyx’s quest to learn how to live among humanity without harming them, when it’s something Vampirella herself has never quite mastered? It could all become moot when old-school Vampirella foes the Cult of Chaos return seeking vengeance, both on Vampi and the disloyal daughter of Chaos who has rejected their mad god. (That’s Nyx, FYI.) One thing’s for sure – fangs, fists, and flame will fly!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As much as I’ve struggled with certain things in the larger Vampirella universe with some of the books that are going on, taking a chance on most of them does lead to some rewards at times. Nyx wasn’t a struggle at first but I was wary of what it was going to be about. Thankfully, Christos Gage’s work with it has come across well in what it wants to explore and it has me intrigued enough to give a few more and see where it’ll go. Marc Borstel has a decent handle on the artwork with designs that work but some of it just feels awkward at times with how Nyx carries herself and some of the flow of the action. This installment took a bit to get used to this interpretation of Vampirella as the opening page facial design just left me really wary. It doesn’t look and feel like a Vampirella book, which is a good thing, but it hasn’t really defined its own style here yet either.
With Nyx having had quite the confrontation and discussion with her father, she’s back on Earth now and in a fight with Vampirella. But that’s just her shorthand way of figuring out it’s the real Vampirella after an encounter that happened in the Secret Six book I don’t read. Nyx has sought her out for some discussion, which really does surprise Vampirella, as Nyx is trying to figure out the best way to deal with her life after the things she learned from her father about his past children and her own place in the world. Vampirella’s not exactly keen to make friends with Nyx but she does make it clear that one of the ways to find a sense of peace is to engage with others in meaningful ways, and to deal with one’s hunger, but Vampirella keeps coming back to how people like them invariably draw danger to them and innocents are killed.
While that does happen here, the two do end up trying to have a girl’s night out together first to see if they can find some level of friendship. But they’re so different that it doesn’t really work until they get Vampirella drunk as she realizes that she just has to overconsume for that to happen. And drunk Vampirella is fun at first until she gets weepy and then throws up. Which happens just as the Cult of Chaos shows up, one of the few remaining members, and invokes an ice demon to destroy her. That leads to some fun action and the two women work well together, but it again just reinforces Vampirella’s point. So many innocents died while they fought that they really can’t engage in the human world all that often. There’s an edge of sadness to Vampirella with this, which makes sense with the losses she recounted early on – some at Nyx’s hands – and we see how Nyx is just shifting her focus going forward which is going to be dark.
In Summary:
Nyx is moving along well in its journey here and some formal crossover time with Vampirella early on was a given. What we get here lets the two of them spend time together to get a better understanding of the other and that goes a long way toward making for a fun issue. Just the whole spending time out at the bar and going to town with things makes for a lot of laughs and enjoyment. I do like that Vampirella seems to get regularly accosted by these low-level odd jobs out there that have access to older powers by hereditary means or just plain luck and try to be the one to take her down. It’s no fun for her but there’s a kind of weariness about her at times that’s fun. Nyx is looking to move in an interesting direction from here but I’m being cautious in trying to read too much into her motivations at this point.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: January 12th, 2022
MSRP: $3.99
