Publisher: Dynamite Comics
Writer: Nancy A. Collins
Artist: Patrick Berkenkotter
Release Date: 4th June 2014

Vampirella, the original Bad Girl of comics, is back with yet another new #1, proving you can’t keep a good alien bloodsucker down.  She also seems a hard character for writers to get their head around for some reason, with a patchy history over the years with an even smattering of mediocre or just plain bad stories in amongst the gems.

Dynamite’s latest relaunch is one of the more middling examples. It’s not bad per se, but neither is it particularly engaging.  There’s nothing we haven’t seen a million times before in Nancy A.Collins’ script. The Vatican call in Vampirella to investigate a child abduction by the imaginatively titled Cult Of Chaos, who are trying to bring about a new age of darkness and…I’m sure you can guess the rest.

Add in some unnatural-sounding dialogue that reads like it’s from an old 80s title and you have a comic that just never gets out of 1st gear.  On art duties, Patrick Berkenkotter and Dennis Crisistomo definitely make the most of what they’re given, with a nice atmospheric horror style that’s just the right side of cartoony.

It’s a shame, as Vampi is a comic I want to enjoy, but this is just average. Here’s hoping it picks up.

Rating: 3/5.

---

The writer of this piece was: Jules Boyle
Jules tweets from @Captain_Howdy