Vampirella Armageddon // Review
In the end, vampires and werewolves will fight alongside each other. There will be dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria. Or at least...lots of sand and bloodshed outside a place called The Menagerie in Sepulcher City. Dynamite Comics returns to a dark future horror in Vampirella Armageddon #1. The follow-up series to Vampirella Strikes! opens with an issue written by Tom Sniegoski with art by Kewber Baal. Color comes to the page courtesy of Omi Remalante Jr. The opening of the new series shows some promise as a horror-action series with some pretty heavy backstory that only kind of slows-down the narrative of an otherwise satisfying opening.
She’s just having a casual conversation with a werewolf at a bar in The Menagerie. He’s asking her about blood. She’s cut back over the years. He’s asking her if it’s like an addiction, but it’s not. She definitely NEEDS the blood to survive. As she gets older, though, she has more and more difficulty controlling herself when she allows herself the arousal of drinking actual blood. She’s about to get into something a bit more dangerous than blood when a decaying guy named Louis shows-up with some information about an unmarked white van that came-into town earlier-on in the evening...
Sniegoski fuses a few different subgenres of horror together for a fun opening action issue. The dialogue feels crisp and witty without forcing humor into places where it doesn’t belong. In places, the dialogue feels quite sharp, though it lacks a certain amount of poetry that could have made it stronger. The buddy action dynamic between vampire and werewolf is quite charming as the team investigates the arrival of an unmarked white van that turns out to have some considerable darkness surrounding it. The mood is enjoyable. The action is fun. It’s a perfect horror for the heart of summer.
There’s a considerable amount of ink on the page. The darkness is kind of overwhelming in places. Baal finds some clever framing for the action which really packs a punch when the script calls for the percussion of aggression. There’s a great deal of energy hitting the page. The werewolf shoots across the page with animalistic intensity. Vampirella occasionally looks strikingly graceful and powerful as the action encroaches. Remalante casts the page in some beautifully engaging colors that add considerably impressive depth to Baal’s visuals.
Traditional horror inhabits a post-apocalyptic atmosphere quite well. It’s a very appealing pairing of werewolf, vampire and the end of the world. Without the need to remain hidden in the shadows, the traditional horror fixtures have a chance to open-up in ways the feel suitably cool for page and panel. The buddy action between allied vampire and werewolf energies make for a really fun combination as well. Given the right momentum, the series could turn into something quite appealing quite quickly. Sniegoski and Baal bring an appealing series of scenes to the page for an enjoyable opening.
