Vampirella 1992

Vampirella 1992

Dynamite Entertainment 2021

Written by Max Bemis

Illustrated by Roberto Castro & Marcos Ramos

Coloured by Andrew Dalhouse & Dinei Ribeiro

Lettered by Carlos M. Mangual

Now, in the long-ago year of 1992, VAMPIRELLA finds herself a vampire trapped between not just two worlds but two genres! When a "bad girl model" hired to portray Vampy at conventions and signings is plunged into a terrorist incident, she's forced to face not just men with nunchucks before her, but the insidious forces roiling beneath the surface of geek culture... and her own dark past.

What a fun and entertaining this issue is. Ya know I’ve really come to enjoy and appreciate the work that Max does when he’s writing stories. The man has a pretty brilliant head on his shoulders for storytelling and its quite clear he’s got a great head full of creativity and imagination that’s able to clearly bring to life. I love the idea that Vampirella and a few girls are going to a geek event though to be perfectly honest I could have done without the whole horrid 90’s style interior artwork, it was bad enough the first time around and now it looks even worse than I remembered.

I really like the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceedingly well. The character development is phenomenal to see thanks to the dialogue, character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter. These women dealing hormonal boys who’ll never likely a real naked woman that isn’t paid for makes me laugh hysterically. The pacing here is sensational and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story keeps us riveted to the page.

I am very much enjoying the way that this is being structured and how the layers within the story emerge, evolve and strengthen. Without the layers the opening and the ending wouldn’t have been as magnificent as it is and we’d fail to see that she’s trying to blend into humanity and keep her urges under control. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it continues to move the story forward is beautifully achieved.

Now I’ve made no bones i’m not thrilled with the 90’s work we see, the opening looks fantastic and then to see the outrageous body proportions that wouldn’t be found on a corpse let alone a human being drives me nuts. There are moments throughout the book however that we don’t see that and we see more along the lines of the opening which is sensational! That page with the triangle for instance is utterly brilliant and the bloke who looks like he’s either a god or a homeless dude that’s what I wish we’d seen throughout the entire book. The composition within the panels bring us some beautiful depth perception, sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story. The colour work is magnificent! The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is completely and utterly gorgeous.

​

Max doesn’t just tell us this odd and yet satisfying story but he manages to infuse it with jokes and a dark sense of humour that you just done always expect to see. I am pretty impressed that this is a one-and-done story that not only tells the specified tale but manages to add a few extras that flesh Vampirella out even further. If we can forgo the 90’s artwork I’d love to see Max have the opportunity to really cut loose on a Vampirella story from her early years in either a limited or a maxi-series event.