Constance’s plan meets some unexpected obstacles.
Creative Staff:
Story: Tim Seeley, Aaron Campbell
Art: Jim Terry
Colors: Triona Farrell
Letterer: Crank!
What They Say:
New York socialite and vampire Constance has arrived in the frontier town of Sangre de Moro. Now, she’ll have to survive monster slayers, gunmen, and the harsh New Mexico sun to get what she needs–soil from the place where she was rebirthed immortal.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening installment of this property worked out pretty well in setting some of the basics but there’s always that wariness I have from a Tim Seeley book, especially from publishers like Vault Comics, because I know I’m going to get something good going on here but I’m also going to get something that will be disturbing. With this property, he’s partnered with Aaron Campbell for the story here and they got things underway with a familiar story but one with enough hooks and teases as to how it’ll separate itself from the pack as it moves on. The artwork from Jim Terry captures the period well to make it feel like a period piece but with a kind of earthiness that adds to that realism, especially with Triona Farrell’s color design. The character designs are great and the overall look and style of the book make it worth digging into for just that alone.
With a lot of things established in the opening issue, this one opens with more flashbacks to help cement where Constance came from. We see her after she was born and how her parents decided to get married only for it to turn into a disaster. First with the general coming to kill her father and the dog going after her mother, which resulted in her father killing it – and accidentally killing her mother as well. That had her father go feral, quite literally, and for Rosa’s path to become what we know that eventually lead to her reinventing herself as Constance. She’s intent on getting back to that soil soon as she’s getting weaker and weaker and it’s becoming increasingly harder to keep this facade up of handling it. She’s still playing to the air of privilege with Dooley and to ensure that she’s not viewed as anything but in control of everything and it helps to really cement who she is after where she came from.
The trip that night to where she was born is one fraught with its own peril, however, first in Constance becoming closer to being primal and cutting down Dooley, and then discovering with him that the location has been taken over by some kind of strange blood cult that hs supernatural creatures at their disposal. It’s a bleak and fascinating situation, especially with Farrell’s color design in using the red skies and the black of the creatures, and seeing how Constance finds a way to give herself a minor extension while protecting Dooley. Dark things are definitely afoot where her life truly began and you can see how upset she is with the intent on ensuring things go back to a different status. But there will be a lot more blood shed first that has to happen and it’s intriguing watching it unfold here.
In Summary:
The first issue was definitely intriguing with what it set up and this issue only furthers that. I really like the dynamic between Constance and Dooley asit plays out even knowing how things first started between them. There’s a real problem in it because of how it’s set up but it’s just fascinating to watch knowing the truth of it all. The first blush look at what’s going on where Rosa’s life took its dark turn is definitely the disturbing material I expected from Seeley and I’m curious to see where he takes it next. Jim Terry is giving it all the right elements and the expressiveness of the characters combined with the harshness of the color design just ups the ante constantly in how dangerous it all feels. I’m excited for the possibilities here.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Vault Comics
Release Date: May 11th, 2022
MSRP: $3.99
