This review is a bit belated due to the busyness of the holiday season, but now that that’s over we can start the new year off by taking a look at Vampirella #6 by Christopher Priest and Ergun Gunduz.
This issue continues to pick up on the many different plot threads that Priest has been laying out in recent issues. I’m enjoying all of them, but sometimes it does feel like the book jumps around a lot. As some of these elements start to come together to form a cohesive narrative I’m hoping there will be a bit less of that. We’re starting to get a pretty clear picture of where some of this is all headed (particularly with Vampirella’s complicated relationship situation) at the halfway point of this story-arc.
If you’re a fan of graphic violence and gore, you will probably like this issue as there are a few disturbing scenes in this one. Most notably, Lilith engineers a situation in an elevator where Vampirella and Victory are. Under her hypnosis, a police officer murders his partner, allowing a convict to free himself and take Victory as a hostage. Vampirella holds nothing back and does some pretty serious damage to the fellow.
This incident is also significant for what it’s setting up for the Vampirella-Victory-Benny relationship. In the previous issue Victory found a brochure in her car left by a realtor (actually the Blood Red Queen) which offers a fee trip to Tortola. However, due to the elevator incident Victory is no longer able to take the trip because she will be testifying about it in court. This is going to open the door for Vampirella and Benny to go on the trip, which will be how they end up on the plane with von Kreist. You can see how this is starting to come together and how it’s being orchestrated by Vampirella’s enemies. To what ultimate end, we’ll have to wait and see.
Gunduz turns in another solid issue on the art side. My only criticism would be that there are a few panels in this issue where I would expect his art to really soar, but that is hampered a bit by some awkward expressions and anatomy. It’s not a major problem, but is definitely something I noticed more in this issue than in previous ones.
I feel like this story arc is kind of at a turning point as we reach halfway. Up to this point we had several seemingly unrelated plot threads gradually expanded upon. It was as though many different stories were being told at once. Now that some of this is starting to blend together, I expect the storytelling to become a bit more straightforward as we head toward a conclusion.
I also wanted to mention that I particularly enjoyed the covers this month, especially the main Artgerm acetate cover. I started reading comics in the early 90’s so special gimmick covers have a special place in my heart. I also picked up the metallic version of that cover along with Fay Dalton’s cover, who has been doing an incredible job on this series and the Vampirella/Red Sonja/Betty & Veronica book.
Nice write-up 🙂 I like stories where seemingly disparate threads come together for a reveal towards the end. Looking forward to picking this up as a trade.
This is definitely like that. I think I know where some of these plot points are going to converge, but a lot of it is still unclear. The good thing is they are all interesting on their own, so I’m not getting bored waiting for it to come together.
Sounds like Priest has handled it well. Always best if you can’t tell where it’s headed until the last moment.