“Vampirella #2” Review – A Fantastic Tale of Two Twins

In the previous issue, new readers were introduced to Vampirella’s sister Draculina, having been turned back into a vampire after living a human life. We watch and read as she recounts her troubles to Vampirella’s therapist, who comedically thinks they’re the same person and doesn’t realize the bigger picture of what’s going on, namely, when it comes to the bigger family matters involving Lilith and Dracula. Will she be able to prove otherwise? Will she learn to forgive her sister, and just why Vampirella bit her? Let’s find out together!

Writer: Christopher Priest
Art: Davis Goetten, Ergün Gündüz (Pages 1 – 3)
Colors: Giovanni Caputo, Ergün Gündüz (Pages 1- 3)

One of the Best

Right off the bat, I’ll say that I absolutely love where this story is going. This book gives readers our first good look at a certain figure, and it feels appropriately dramatic. Without giving away too much, the dialogue is utterly fantastic, being sophisticated yet easy to follow. To further back it up and show the character’s true power to the audience, the church setting was such a fantastic choice, lending this sense of eeriness to boot. In order to fully grasp what I mean, I guess you’ll need to read the issue!

In order to leverage the drama, Priest expertly interlaces the drama with comedy. A lot of the humor on display here feels highly relatable, such as people getting confused between siblings. An aspect that I found relatable was not wanting to be involved with family affairs. In both the humor and the drama, it always feels nice having a story and characters that feel relatable. Relatability makes things that much easier when trying to connect with what’s going on, and that’s something Priest has always excelled at.

The Art of the Bite

First off, I have to say that I absolutely loved seeing Priest’s previous “Vampirella” partner Ergün Gündüz return for the first few pages of the issue! As always, his work here was absolutely breathtaking, perfectly matching the work of Goetten and Caputo. This was an absolutely stellar art team if I ever saw one.

Much like in the previous issue, Goetten shows that he knows how to perfectly capture a scene. To go back to the church scene for a moment, everything in it felt perfectly dramatic and brooding. From the angles to the shading, I couldn’t help but feel both fear and tenseness. Alternatively, in the more comedic moments, facial expressions were on par with the comedic beats. All of this showed in Caputo’s usage of color as well, feeling darker and muted when needed, but a bit brighter when the moment called for it. Shades of red, yellow, blue, and white were played with throughout, lending nothing but beauty to each panel.

Overall Grade – 10/10

From the tenseness, horror, and relatability of writing to the matching tenacity of the artwork, Priest led and created yet another highly exceptional installment of “Vampirella”. One will laugh as much as they feel fear and will want to keep coming back for another bite.

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Comments

Have you been keeping up with Priest’s work on “Vampirella”? What do you think of his take on the character and her story? Let’s discuss in the comments below!