Vampirella The Dark Powers #01

Vampirella The Dark Powers #01

Dynamite Entertainment 2020

Written by Dan Abnett

Illustrated by Paul Davidson

Coloured by Andrew Dalhouse

Lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

THE COSMIC SAGA BEGINS HERE!

Welcome to THE PROJECT, an interdimensional collective of superheroes, tasked with recruiting members from across infinite worlds. And their newest recruit is…VAMPIRELLA!?

This is one I have been waiting for since it was announced. I mean this is half the fun of owning or having the rights to these properties and can do a mash-up so that the unexpected can actually happen. This is one of those rare things where you think it shouldn’t work but it does and exceptionally well at that. Dynamite continues to impress me with how they bring new life to their properties in the most unexpected ways possible. I have praised them for finding creators to bring these series to life, and Dan is one of those individuals who it doesn’t matter what he works on I’m going to be reading it.

The way that this is being told is sensational! The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is perfectly presented. There is no hey this is how they all come together, nope it’s straight into things and letting the readers’ own mind become interactive and thus engaged in the story and that’s how you get hooked on a good story. The character development here is really interesting as well. How we see them interact with one another and seeing how they come from different world’s and different ages make this team truly unique. The pacing here is superb and as we are taken through the pages revealing the story, the characters and the twists and turns along the way we get to have some great fun.

I like how we see this being structured along with the layers within the story emerging we can see just how much of a scope there is to the story. It is rather epically put together and while we see familiar faces in some unfamiliar garb already establish that they are all who they are and their viewpoints are most decidedly different from one another. The way that everything is working together to create the story’s ebb & flow is utterly delightful. There is an undeniable flow to the book that makes you feel like you are coming into the story that’s already started and yet you aren’t missing a darn thing.

Paul is doing some interesting work here. That first page which introduces us to the book is dynamic in how we see the city and the guys in their armour. Now the first look of Vampirella though looks more she’s a man in drag, not a drag queen but a man in drag and it’s scary as all get out. I will say this that she’s more primal and feral than we’re used to seeing her isn’t really a bad thing and it sets this version of her apart from others. The linework is fabulous and how the varying weights are being utilised to create the detail work is exceptionally well done. I really would like to see backgrounds utilised they do a lot to enhance the moments and bring us depth perception and a sense of scale. I kind of miss seeing them to be honest. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is nicely rendered as well. I like seeing the pops of colour we see from the guns firing as they add such a great oomph to the moment. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is great to see. I do wish we’d see more but it has a very definite old school look and feel to them.

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I am excited to see where this is going to go. I do like her superhero outfit and it’s a great take on her classic look that helps her look the part if not actually fit in. I think this is off to a brilliant start here and while there are plenty of ways for this to go I really wanna see her and The Fighting Yank hit it off. Folks this is nothing like you’ll expect it be and yet it’ll excite you in ways that you never thought possible.