With the recent news that Diamond Comics Distributors will cease distribution of new comics for indefinite period of time due to COVID-19, it appears Vampirella #9 will be the last issue of this series that we get for some time. I hate to see that because I think any time books are delayed it breaks the momentum of the story. It’s especially bad timing for Vampirella as issue 9 is the beginning of many of the ongoing plot threads coming full circle, which should continue in the next few issues.
If you haven’t read the Free Comic Book Day issue, you really ought to go back and read it before jumping into #9. Up to this point, you probably would be ok without reading it, but I feel like this issue is much more impactful if you’ve read it. The main event of this issue is the plane crash that we saw in the FCBD issue. We didn’t have much detail about it initially, but now in issue 9 we get a better idea of what happend and how von Kreist, Nyx, and the Blood Red Queen orchestrated it. They have basically infiltrated the airline in the guise of employees. The Blood Red Queen is in air traffic control and von Kreist and Nyx are aboard the plane (Nyx as a fligh attendant and von Kreist stowing away in a cargo box). We also see how this leads the young girl Katie, who we met early on, meeting Vampirella.
While all of this is going on, Vampirella’s former love interest from the Six Marys confronts Victory to ask for her help. If you remember, she was previously warned by Drake that there was a plot to kill Vampirella. She now want’s Victory to help her protect Vampi, but Victory refuses to talk to her and sends her away. As Mary leaves the apartment, the other Five Marys confront and murder her because of her relationship with Vampirella. Having a change of heart, Victory walks out to find Mary to see what she wanted to tell her and finds her lifeless body with the other nuns standing over it. We later see Victory return to the apartment holding five bloody knives, which I assume means she killed the rest of the Marys. This was a pretty good scene which I wasn’t expecting at all. I do wonder how Victory manages to take on all five Marys who are basically trained killers, but that’s okay.
This was definitely one of the best issues so far and I can’t wait to get the next one, but unfortunately it looks like we’ll have to wait a while to get it. I also felt like this was one of Ergun Gunduz’s strongest issues on art, which he returns to for the full issue. In many of the past issues the art was strong but there would be a panel here or there that I felt looked a little awkward. I have no such complaints about this issue as the art is consistently good from beginning to end.
I hope the wait for issue 10 won’t be too long, but in the meantime it will give me a chance to catch up on some other reviews that I need to do like the Nancy Collins novel and Steven Roman’s book From the Stars…A Vampiress, so be on the lookout for those!
Leave a Reply