The world continues to be terrible but there are dark glimmers of hope.
Creative Staff:
Story: Thomas Sniegoski
Art: Michael Sta. Maria
Colors: Omi Remalante Jr.
Letterer: Troy Peteri
What They Say:
Mistress Nyx continues her war against the last vestiges of humanity, while Vampirella begins the process of rebuilding the Danse Macabre. What sort of bargain has she made with Abaddon, the Angel of the Apocalypse? And what part will the vampire lord, Mazarin, and his Undead play in the growing conflict?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
This series continues to scratch a particular itch in bringing out the kind of Vampirella story I want to see if we’re going to deal with her post-apocalyptic placement in the grand scheme of things. While I like the pre-apocalyptic material, Thomas Sniegoski is doing a solid job in crafting a tale that slowly introduces more and more of what’s going on as Vampirella herself also discovers it. And we get a good bit of time with Nyx too so it’s not so one-sided. Michael Sta. Maria has been delivering great pages from the start and that continues here. I love his take on Nyx and in this issue, he gets work with demons, 1950s Americana, Vampirella and her crew, and Abbadon himself. It’s definitely all over the place but feels consistent.
The discovery that Abaddon is the weapon that was hidden all this time has been interesting to watch unfold but I had to laugh at the comical way in which he was caught a few decades prior. Basically living in a small suburban community doing gardening on his property, being someone that was “always” a resident there, only to be captured by the Danse Macabre as they show up and slap special cuffs on him to his shock and surprise is just right. This cut him off from the above and left him unable to contact or connect with anyone until he was needed. Of course, now he just intends to destroy everything should he be freed at this stage which means he’s useless against Nyx. And that means going out to find some of those from the Danse that fled before the final fight in hopes of convincing them to step up in the here and now.
Nyx, for her part, is starting to learn about what went down at the secret hideout as one of the demons sent there managed to escape and she’s dug into their brain to find out the truth. This has her setting up for some fun challenges ahead as she relishes that and as a balance we see how some the demons out in the wild of the country are operating and trapping people they come across, including former Danse members. It’s a nice bit of action that lets Pendragon and Vampirella work together for a bit and it lets us get some violence in play for the book. But we also get a bit more of that when the ending pages deliver us a tease of another group out in the world that may be going up against Nyx but has their own agenda as well. I’m wary of another group being introduced (unless they were before, the pandemic delays have me unsure) especially since they’re so stylized in uniform but I like the potential here.
In Summary:
There is a good bit going on in this installment of the series but it feels transitional, preparing for what’s to come next. Vampirella isn’t finding what she needs though Abbadon and makes a quick pivot toward what will help in the way that makes the most sense. Nyx is savoring her plaything that will cause pain later for Vampirella but also wary of what she’s doing. I’m glad we got to see more of the country but this whole post-apocalyptic world still just feels ill-formed in my mind based on what’s been presented before so I’m not quite connecting with it yet.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: September 23rd, 2020
MSRP: $3.99
