Review: Vampirella Strikes #4
When I first found out Dynamite contracted Tom Sniegoski as writer for a new Vampirella mini-series, I was over the moon. Sniegoski (with Christopher Golden) was one of my favorite writers from the Vampirella comics during the Harris era and to have him return meant nothing less than: party!
And so the bar was set… and luckily it’s been met! Sniegoski has crafted a tale in which Vampirella is contracted by an angelic host (Dominations) to find a missing angelic general, with the help of a fallen angel named Janus. These elements of the story are mixed together with the discovery of a drug derived from angelic blood as well as a black market for angelic organ-parts, and Sniegoski is surely stepping up his game.
On a little side note: this story might prove to be pretty hefty, since Vampirella’s adventures are now more for a mature reading audience than ever before.
Back to the story at hand as Vampirella and Janus are captured and thrown into an arena to battle a half-dozen halfbred shuck (offspring of demon hound and an earthly dog). It won’t suprise anyone familiar with Vampirella that she will come out victorious, but the battle is fierce and jumps off the pages with pleasure of writing and art.
The battle is disrupted when an angelic host obliterates the arena and captures Vampirella as well as Janus and that is the short of it all… onto the penultimate issue in a month or so!
The part I love about this comic is the fact that the colorist finally opens up his palet and while my previous reviews put down his monotone style, this issue is a step in the right direction.
The pencils of Johhny Desjardins are solid as ever, although this issue has a tad too many camera-turns in this high-speed romp, but nowhere does this suffer the reading experience.
The one thing bothering me a tad is the fact that mainly Janus (but Vampirella also) is prone to spouting a lot of “funny one-liners”. The Vampirella I know has her wits in order and is dishing out serious remarks mixed with snarly yet funny comments and that’s still mostly there in this issue. But Janus’s constant quipping is too much. I think when I’ll reread the complete story (6 issues) in one sitting it might not be a problem anymore, but it is something that bothered me in this issue.
Overall the Dynamite team made me a happy fanboy who’s still proud of having decided to pre-order this title!
CREDITS:
- Words: Tom Sniegoski
- Art: Johnny Desjardins
- Colors: Adriano Lucas
- Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
- Price: $3.99
- Release Date: Apr 10, 2013
About the Author
Richard Boom Richard is the driving force behind Comics for Sinners. His love and admiration for female comic book characters is virtually unparalleled, which immediately explains his biggest 'sin': his Hot Mummy fetish. This sketchbook theme is philogynistic in nature and even the source of his WIP comic book series "The Sisterhood".
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