Van Helsing: Finding Neverland // Review
Liesel didn’t know where she was going when she jumped through the portal in pursuit of a woman referring to herself as the Bride of Frankenstein. It turned out that she ended up in a realm that exists in an overlapping pocket of time with Ox, the Shadowlands, Wonderland, and a few other places. Liesel’s found herself in the realm of Peter Pan...but since this is a Zenescope comic book, it will be considerably darker than Disney as writer Pat Shand presents Van Helsing: Finding Neverland. Based on a story co-created by Dave Franchini and David Wohl, the tale is tied to the page with art by Hakan Aydin with color by Grostieta.
Liesel Van Helsing is trapped in Neverland. Getting out of the dark fairyland will be considerably more difficult than finding the second star to the right and then straight on till morning. There will be a great deal of dangers that she will have to face if she’s ever going to tread back home. There will be sinister fairy forces, crocodiles, and a weird steampunk mixture of mech and magic. Liesel’s got a ridiculously large Frankenstein gun to fire at the thing, but will it be enough?
Shand and company move through a hell of a lot of magical political drama before settling down into the action. Clearly, there’s the intention of making it all build intensity before the big showdown with the golden android at the end of the issue, but it’s all a bit of a muddle when Liesel isn’t actively engaged in being an action hero. This is too bad, as the character has real potential in supernatural drama that simply isn’t being achieved in her latest issue. Liesel comes across as a fun hero here, but she deserves better.
Aydin knows how to frame a shot. Liesel strikes some pretty dramatic poses with friend and foe alike. Grostieta’s colors add a level of atmosphere to Neverland, but it never really seems fantastic enough to feel distinct from any earthly location. The action that the art team is bringing to the page lacks the impact that it should have. Moments of heavy impact can fall pretty flat. That being said, it’s all executed with a solidly entertaining style that has no difficulty bringing across the full reality of the action.
A steampunk monster hunter with a stylish sense of poise and action has a great deal of potential, but it’s nothing that any creative team has managed all that well with Liesel Van Helsing over the course of the recent past. She remains a fun character with the occasional powerful moment and interesting bit of dialogue, but she’s never given enough novelty or personality to come across with the kind of intensity that she could have. A tumble through the pages with her remains fun anyway.
