Vampiverse #3

Vampiverse #03

Dynamite Entertainment 2021

Written by Thomas Sniegoski & Jeannine Acheson

Illustrated by Daniel Maine

Coloured by Francesca Cittarelli

Lettered by Taylor Esposito

With the monstrous Bloodwing in pursuit, Vampirella, Book, and the adorable-yet-deadly Baby Prague continue their search for the missing pages from the Book of Prophecy. Along the way, they’ll run into never-before-seen Vampirellas across the fabric of time and space who’re to aid them in thwarting Bloodwing’s plan of reshaping reality. Also: in this issue we meet The Vamp, a pulp-style crime fighter who could give the Shadow a run for his money (if he carried money)!

Whomever decided to do the Donna Reed tribute I absolutely bloody adore you! Now that we’ve been introduced to it I’m going to need a four to six issue arc of this family and what they do pure and simple. I’m loving every single moment as the crew traverse the fabrics of space and time dropping in on other versions of Vampirella. The concept is simple and amazing and how we see this coming to life is exceptionally well handled. Even better is the identity of the woman who is chasing them and why she wants to hunt down and destroy all versions of Vampirella. This is the perfect vehicle for die-hard fans and those who want to read her adventures but don’t know where to start.

I love 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 exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character development as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter really shines a spotlight on these ever changing personalities. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages introducing new characters and revealing more of the story the more exciting and thrilling things become.

I’m pretty impressed with the way that this is being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and grow. I also like how we see the layers open up new avenues to be explored, by this yes I mean new worlds we want to see explored, and how this adds such 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 immaculately achieved.

I love, love, love Daniel’s work on the interiors here. The creativity and imagination that we see through each world and how it fits that moment in time and then side by side with each other making the styles more pronounced and more impressive in how they fit together as well. The linework is exquisite and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level & quality of detail within the work is phenomenal. The way backgrounds are utilised to enhance and expand the moments as well as how they work within the composition of the panels bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is exceptionally well handled. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised, including the black & white with gray tones, to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a masters eye for how colour works.

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Seriously if you haven’t become a fan of Vampirella and/or are intimidated by her long and storied history you need to give this a go. I promise you you’ll understand her appeal and fall in love with her yourself. She can be relatable to by everyone regardless of age or gender and that’s a glorious thing to experience. The writing is impeccably rendered and the characterisation is so bespoke to each character while the interiors here are pretty flawlessly rendered.