Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Writer: Nancy Collins
Artist: Dave Acosta
Colourists: Valentina Pino
Release date: 10 June 2015
Price: $3.99
If you have read Garth Ennis Jennifer Blood or Archie Goodwin’s stint on Warren Publishing’s Vampirella magazines you may find this new team-up mini-series readable.
In Ennis’s hands Jennifer Blood came across as a fascinating revenge saga. Since then Jennifer Blood has morphed into a kind of Punisher clone, which seems to have made Jennifer Blood a less interesting character, heading for stereotyping Hell. Vampirella meantime makes busy in a city full of violent lawbreakers.
Vampirella dimension-jumps into Blood’s world. A mysterious figure gives both the ladies magic weapons. Vampirella is just trying to get home. So far so, well good might be stretching the point but this is more popcorn and soda than fine dining and sometimes that works.
Collins’s script is entertaining and in occasionally clever – “Suddenly I couldn’t move or fight back; it was like I’d been slipped a roofie.” Is as good as it gets. Acosta’s art does its best to make up for the writing; success is limited but there are some well-constructed panels and the figure work and faces are well proportioned and realistic. Pino’s colouring adds depth to the artwork and makes the visual easier to digest.
Two issues in, one hopes the sum of Swords of Sorrow: Vampirella & Jennifer Blood four issue mini-series will be greater than its parts. Finger crossing is allowed.
Reviewer: Joe Lovece
Reviews Editor Steve Hooker