Published on June 30th, 2014 | by Steven Roman

Review: Vampirella #2

Yes, horror fans, it’s true: comics’ #1 vampiric leading lady is back, better than before, courtesy of award-winning writer Nancy A. Collins (Swamp Thing, Red Sonja) and artists Patrick Berkenkotter and Dennis Crisostomo. And if you read my review of last month’s premiere issue, then you know I enjoyed most of what I saw (my one real complaint being that, as first issues go, it was exclusionary to new readers, who’d have no idea what was going on).

In short, Vampirella has been selected by her old enemies, the Cult of Chaos and its leader, Ethan Shroud, to become the receptacle for a dark goddess’s spirit—the sister of the mad god Chaos, in fact! News of that didn’t sit too well with her superiors at the Vatican monster-hunting organization Cestus Dei, and they decided that action must be taken—and quickly.

Picking up from where last issue left off (and still lacking a story title), Vampirella faces her newest challenge: an eviction notice! Apparently the ability to keep her apartment in case of possession wasn’t covered under “Ella Normandy’s” tenant’s agreement, and her Vatican landlords waste no time in performing an exorcism of the real estate variety. And then they send a special-ops strike team to kill her.

Sure, from the outside it might seem to be an extreme measure, but when was the last time you tried evicting a vampire whose mother is the source of all monsters?

So now Vampirella finds herself on the run from the gun-toting, holy-water-throwing Father Nicodemus—known in his Latin-speaking circles as “Malleus Maleficarum” (the Witch Hammer)—with just a pair of go-go boots and a whip-thin scarlet costume to her name, counting the days until either Rome’s elite kills her or Chaos’s sister possesses her body and unleashes Armageddon. Or, somehow, finding a solution to both her problems.

Like the first issue, the story hits the ground running. Under Collins’s direction, taking time to catch one’s breath isn’t an option for Vampirella—not when the clock’s ticking toward her potential doom—but the story still advances with the introduction of the aforementioned Nicodemus, and Drago, a vampire whose appearance is so obviously based on silent film actor Max Schreck’s most famous character that Vampi addresses him as a “nosferatu.” And it’s Drago, surprisingly, who offers Vampi a chance at putting things right…

Come for the great art, stay for the greater story. If you’re a longtime Vampirella fan, you’ll be pleased to see her returning to her horror roots; if you’re a new member of the Scarlet Legion, you’ll find an action heroine with a thirst for blood, and not a sparkly Twilight vampire in sight.

Vampirella, Vol. 2 #2

Written by Nancy A. Collins

Pencils by Patrick Berkenkotter

Inks by Dennis Crisostomo

Main cover by Terry and Rachel Dodson

Publisher: Dynamite Comics

32 pages • full-color

$3.99 U.S.

Steven A. Roman is the author of the Saga of Pandora Zwieback novel series and the graphic novel Lorelei: Sects and the City, and the bestselling author of the novels X-Men: The Chaos Engine Trilogy and Final Destination: Dead Man’s Hand. His short fiction has appeared in such anthologies as Best New Zombie Tales 2, If I Were an Evil Overlord, Untold Tales of Spider-Man, and Doctor Who: Short Trips: Farewells.

About the Author

Steven Roman Steven A. Roman is the author of the Saga of Pandora Zwieback novel series and the graphic novels Lorelei: Sects and the City and Sunn, and the bestselling author of the novels X-Men: The Chaos Engine Trilogy and Final Destination: Dead Man’s Hand. Follow his adventures in publishing at StarWarp Concepts.