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Early Review: Vampirella #1

Vampi comes back down to Earth.

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Vampirella re-emerges in the urban jungle to track down the mysterious "Le Fanu" - - a vampire madam behind an insidious "biter club."

The Good

Reis' art is just exquisite.  Lush shadows, rich detail and enough dynamic license to properly balance the realism. He really gave this the right mix of urban horror and romantic adventure.  Trautman's script breaks Vampi's struggle against the vampires down into something alternately heroic, tragic and perverse - - and there's a complexity I could glom to. I was also really charmed by the back-up feature by the memorable duo of Loeb and Sale. It gives a very Robert E. Howard "secret origin" to Vampirella.

The Bad

Pulling from what I know of Vampi (and from the opening recap,) I think she was a princess of an alien planet of vampires at one point. I hope this new incarnation touches on that later on, because the extended opening - - a gender-swapped riff on the typical "back-alley mugging prevention" - - felt a bit too down-to-Earth for a character who screams to be “over the top.”

The Verdict - 4/5

Vampirella’s a title I’ve been curious about for many years but never actually gotten a chance to read on account of how inconsistently it was stocked. This is a strong, accessible debut with some real mood and character to it - - I just hope it's going to get as outrageous as I've understood the character to be.