Vampirella Purgatori #4
Dynamite Entertainment 2021
Written by Ray Fawkes
Illustrated by Álvaro Sarraseca
Coloured by Salvatore Aiala
Lettered by Tom Napolitano
All the players are out in the open now, and the field’s starting to get bloody. Sacrifices are being made and heads are rolling… and now, of course, VAMPIRELLA’s finally got to face it: PURGATORI’s not on her side. She’s not on the enemy’s side, either. She’s on her own side, and the stakes are even bigger than before. Bigger than the whole world? Yeah. That’s right. And now this whole damn fight's going to have to get UGLY.
Oh momma I’m in fear for my life from the ladies of the night, mother of monsters is coming and I’m scared and all alone, Hel is coming down from the gallows and I don’t have very long. Sorry switching the song lyrics up is what came to mind when I sat down to write this review. It perfectly fits too because what we see here is absolutely mind blowing in its ramifications and actions. Each issue of this keeps getting better and stronger than the one before it and Ray really has been able to take these two ladies and team them up rather perfectly.
I love how 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. After the events of last issue to be opening up with Lilith’s seer taking us through current events is a fabulous way to get us going. The character development that we see is pretty amazing thanks the dialogue, the character interactions and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances that they encounter. All of this helps to continually flesh these folks out and it does so beautifully. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story along with its twists & turns keeps the reader on the edge of their seat with anticipation.
I am rather enjoying the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continuing to grow, evolve and strengthen. These layers with their extra moments some of which help the main arc, Purgatori and Hel for example, others, Vampirella and the young man, add extra depth 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 achieved exceptionally well.
The interiors here are absolutely stunning. The eyes and the colours that accompany them are jaw droppingly beautiful. The linework that we see is fabulous and with its varying weights and techniques being utilised to bring out this attention to detail that we see is brilliantly rendered. Normally I want more backgrounds but honestly with these colours and the imagery we get this is so much more powerful to see. Plus we still get some amazing depth perception, sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show stellar eye for storytelling. The colour work steals the show. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights, shadow work as well as the mood and atmosphere we’re seeing is beyond breathtaking.
We’ve always known that these two could in concert with one another while each having their own agenda at the end of the day. So it should come as no surprise that this will or should come to a head next issue and it’s going to be glorious to behold. With some incredibly great, tight writing and simply stunning interiors this is so much more than we could have hoped for.
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Steven Leitman
Just me talking about the comics I enjoy reading, ones that you might not know exist and spotlighting the indie creators that excite me.
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