Vampirella #4 // Review
The daughter of Dralulon sees the child with the gun. But it’s already too late. She shouts at everyone in the room. She’s asking who gave the kid blood. Things are complicated already and they’re going to get worse in Vampirella #4. Writer Christopher Priest and artist Ergün Gündüz continue a compelling horror action drama that reaches deep into a very psychological heart of the heroine as things proceed to unravel for her. The reality of what is playing across the page continues to develop into more and more of a coherent dynamic as the drama and the madness continue to intensify.
So she’s having a psychotic break from reality. Her friends are concerned about that…especially given her strength, he powers and the fact that she has a very vulnerable son to take care of. So naturally, they’re going to try to have some form of intervention. It’s not going to be easy. Certainly it isn’t going to be anything that’s going to be peaceful. She’s going to get very aggressive. She’s going to get very violent. And she’s going to be absolutely certain that they’re out to get her. And given her history, this is not entirely irrational. However, That doesn’t mean the better actions aren’t going to put everyone in danger.
Priest plays with a great deal of complexity over the course of the latest issue of the series. The fact that he’s able to mix Schlake science fiction and horror and very serious interpersonal drama together in a satisfying way is quite an accomplishment. The basic premise of the series is very silly. The basic premise of The title character and who she is is profoundly silly. However, Priest has managed to. Find a compelling dynamic in which all of the different elements can come to rest in a cohesive narrative. It’s really impressive.
Driving the reality of everything is some very impressive artwork by Gündüz. As gritty and horrifying as Image Comics’ Spawn Universe titele try to be with action horrro, they never reall pull-off the horror end of things all that well. It all looks too slick and stylish. They cpuld learn a lot from Gündüz. From the splatter of blood to the Erie life like nature of the corpses at the bottom of any panels, Gündüz delivers the core of death with alarmingly unsettling in it. Interestingly, enough, the impact of the horror of the murder going on, doesn’t detract at all from the exhilaration of the action of that’s getting the page. He is quite a balance between action and horror and drama on a visual level.
Priest has managed point a bit in his run with Vampirella. The jagged hand inconsistent, and none linear nature of the narrative has compromised it in places, but only on an issue by issue basis. On a larger scale story begins to show our remarkably queer vision for the title character and her struggles. The fragmented nature of the life of somebody who’s been on the comics page for decades relief feels quite impressively present in this latest run with the character.
