The warring within one’s self.
Creative Staff:
Story: Christos Gage
Art: Marc Borstel
Colors: Jordie Escuin Llorach
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
What They Say:
After meeting Vampirella last issue, Nyx runs into Pendragon! But this isn’t the lovable old drunken stage magician Vampirella used to hang out with. No, it’s his great-granddaughter, Victoria Pendragon, hunter of monsters and demons…and Nyx happens to fit that description. Especially now that the daughter of Chaos has the supremely powerful occult book, the Crimson Chronicles, which she plans to use to burn away one half of her dual nature. But it’s not the human side she wants to keep. Nyx has decided to go full demon…and woe to the world if she succeeds.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Nyx has managed to get my attention the more that it’s gone on, which is no easy feat considering the state of Vampirella books and the like these days. 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 real go and see where it’ll explore things. 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 acquired the book that she has now, her time with St. John looks like it’ll deliver what she wants. She’s struggling with the two sides of her, human and demon, and figuring that the best option is to get rid of the humanity within her as the emotions are wildly all over the place and unpredictable. Plus, she’s been acting more like a demon lately because of it so it might be best overall. This is actually a surprise to St. John as he figured she’d want to get rid of the demonic side as the whisper on the streets that she’s looking to become more and more human. With St. John having all the things that they need now that she’s got the book, his sorcerer’s den fits all the right hallmarks and they’re able to get into things quickly as he picked up a disciple as a sacrifice overnight so that when the human side is stripped away, it has someplace to go.
And yes, Nyx is foolish enough to step into the pentagram even while knowing all of this. With St. John wanting to be someone who truly matters in the world, he’s instead stripping the demonic side from her but taking it onto himself because it’ll give him power. That puts Nyx in a real pickle as she’s trapped and can’t stop it, which ups the ante nicely. What this allows is the introduction of a third party as a bow and arrow type woman shows up and helps to even the odds and make for some chaos before St. John is eliminated. What we get is definitely interesting as we’re introduced to Victoria Pendragon, the great-grandaughter of Mordecai Pendragon of Vampirella fame. That doesn’t make these two opponents per se, though Victoria’s backstory as she tells it makes clear she has no love lost for the darker problems out there in the world, and we see another kind of potential friendship here in that kind of give and take way.
In Summary:
Nyx has a really good installment here even if Nyx herself acts a bit foolish and without any safeguards for what she’s trying to accomplish. You can blame some of that on her human side but there’s way too much trust given to St. John here to not be taken advantage of. It’s definitely fun in seeing how it plays out but the arrival of Victora is what really hits well. Vampirella has had those that she’s aligned with at times but could go either way with and Nyx really needed someone like that as well. I can see Victoria being a solid addition to the larger mythos and her story is handled well here, as was the introduction.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: February 16th, 2022
MSRP: $3.99
