Van Helsing in The Return of The League of Monsters #1

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Van Helsing in The Return of The League of Monsters #1

Zenescope Entertainment 2021

Written by Pat Shand

Illustrated by Alessandro Uezu

Coloured by Walter Pereyra

Lettered by Taylor Esposito

Liesel Van Helsing has protected the nights from vampires, werewolves, and creatures beyond nightmares for years. Now, all of her deadliest foes return in one final attempt to break the famed hunter. Dracula's Daughter, Frankenstein, The Beast of Exmoor, the Invisible Woman and more launch an all-out assault against the hero. Before they let her die, though, they have a plan to break her down in a way that she's never been before. Will this be the end for Van Helsing?

Well all these one-shots that have been taking place are finally leading up to this. I’ve been asking for this for quite some time too and I really hadn’t thought it was going to happen and who better to usher this in than Pat? While these stories featuring Liesel have been coming out fairly quickly I’d still like to see six issue limited series with some longer adventures, there’s just something to be said about knowing there’s a new issue coming out each month that makes it a tad more exciting and gives you something to look forward to. This is a two-parter so I'm thrilled that we’ll see how things play out next month.

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 that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a magnificent job in bringing us their personalities. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages introducing the story and the characters we pulled into this in ways that continue to surprise and impress.

I really like the way that this is being structured and how the layers within the story begin to emerge and grow. I also like the way that we see the layers within the story open up new avenues to be explored. What these avenues do is they add this great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is extremely well handled.

I’m pretty impressed with the interiors here. The linework is strong, clean and crisp so that along with the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail within the work that we see is exceedingly well rendered. We see some use of backgrounds but not nearly enough, however the composition within the panels brings out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. That moment when Liesel finds the Invisible Woman yeah that moment is utterly amazing and showcases the creativity and imagination we see in this book. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkable eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a sensational eye for storytelling.

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Poor Liesel's life is a mess and has been ever since Hades death, well probably longer but that’s when we the reader really took notice of this occurring. She’s been able to harness that rage, anger and loss into her work but then along comes Rick and things look like they are going to be better, that is until Dracula’s Daughter comes along with her League of Monsters. This is exciting as all get out and it really is ramping things in Liesel life and I cannot wait to see how this plays out. With some strong writing and solid characterisation wrapped up in these wonderful interiors this is the drama we’ve been waiting for.