Review: Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter #2
The vampire Porphyr is dead! After a long and bloody battle Captain Kronos claimed victory in a forest somewhere in Europe. Kronos and his companions, Professor Grost and Carla seem to be ready to relax, but that won’t happen. The villagers from a nearby town, Serechurch, call upon our heroes to deal with a vampire infestation. A vampire army that Porphyr was planning to join, led by the vampire Slake, has taken over part of the town. He leads an army unlike any other known to mankind.
The Creative Team:
Abnett begins this chapter with the good professor studying the towns layout and crafting a plan to take on this new undead threat. Then we get a taste of Carla’s back story, why she wants to become a vampire hunter and we also see the good Captain’s serious side, he’s constantly brooding and doesn’t even understand a joke when Grost compares his level of training to Carla’s. It’s not the most action-packed opening, but it does offer insight to our characters personality and motivation. Kronos typically rushes in where angels fear to tread. He faces a seemingly indestructible vampire and we learn more about Slakes clan, overall a satisfying tale worthy of Hammer productions. It’s great stuff.
Tom Mandrake continues to impress with epic confrontations, there are several splash pages that are the highlight of the issue. The vampires are unique when rendered by this virtuoso illustrator. My favorite splash is the first one we see, when Kronos is entering the run-down library in Serechurch. There’s no action involved but the level of confidence on our hero’s face makes this a great pic. Slake looks different than any vampire in the world of comics and his clan display evil in a terrifying way. Fantastic issue.
In Conclusion:
Can our heroes defeat this new style of vampire that they’ve never faced before? Will Kronos brash undertaking of striking out before the others are ready ruin the plans of Professor Grost, who isn’t finished planning his strategy yet? This issue concludes with the promise of more action than our erstwhile vampire hunters could hope to expect. It’s a fun issue but the next issue seems to bring about a bit more than our protagonists could handle. To be continued. *** (8.3 rating)
Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter #2
Writer – Dan Abnett
Art – Tom Mandrake
Colors – Sian Mandrake
Letters – Simon Bowland
Publisher – Hammer/Titan comics
Publication date – November 2017
About the Author
Kevin Given Kevin Given has studied with "Longridge Writers Group" and "Writer's Boot Camp" a speech/communications major from the University of Maine Presque-Isle/Orono sites. He has created the "Karl Vincent Vampire Hunter" franchise which includes 2 novels and 8 comic books. They can be found on amazon, Indyplanet and Kindle. For a limited time you can get digital copies of "Karl Vincent: Vampire hunter" #1 and "Files of Karl Vincent" #1 for free on Indyplanet. Kevin is producing the third novel in the series "Dracula Rising" (working title) and developing "Foul Blood" into comic book form.
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