Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Writer: Kate Leth
Artist: Eman Casallos
Colourist: Valentina Pinto
Release Date: OUT NOW!
Price: $3.99

 

In Vampirella #4 you get to see that all the awful things you ever heard about Hollywood parties are true and then some!

When Vampirella, Juliette and Tristan gatecrash a tinsel town bash, chock full of Hollywood horror movie actors, the malevolent Slade tries to sign them up for a multi-billion dollar movie deal. Sound too good to be true? Well, this is Hollywood after all and nothing is really what it seems and the seductive Slade just won’t take no for an answer.

This is a decidedly different look for Vampirella; more superhero costume, less 1950’s swimsuit glamour girl.  Eman Casallos’s art is superb but I can’t shake the fact that this new look reminds me of something that should have been in the Teen Titans circa 1975! Maybe it was designed to improve Vampirella’s mass market appeal but iconic looks never go out of fashion and if it is not broke, why fix it?

The gothic/medieval overtones of much of Vampirella’s history might not be an easy fit with 21st-century settings and if this is what it takes to keep Vampirella in the forefront of the sales market who am I to complain? Maybe it will grow on me and in the meantime whether she’s breaking contracts or breaking necks, our girl Vampi is still all bite.

Pine for the old look if you must, but embrace the new because when all is said and done, Vampirella is still a horror comic book legend and Kate Leth and Eman Casallos have produced a modern classic, needing out full attention. Watch this space for more developments, it looks like it’s going to be one heck of a ride.

 

Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker