Review: Vampirella Valentine's Day Special 2021

Love sucks! Well at least in this Vampirella Valentine Special, it sucks , bites and sacrifices. But it is not the love of another that Vampi professes, it is love of the whole human race!

It is the battle as old as time; Vampirella versus Dracula! Pretty much most, if not all the time, the lady from Drakulon wins out. But this time around, Dracula serves to have a bigger bite and Vampi bends her knee and accepts her new Lord, and in doing so pledges an oath not to interfere with the Vampires supremacy. Still with every Dark Lord, be it Sith or Vampire, there is a rebellion brewing, this time led by the mysterious Bloodwing!

Tom Sniegoski and Jeannine Acheson write a compelling story that by its virtue of the bad guy winning, caught my eye. The pair carefully weave their way through this alternative world, switching between exposition and story elements well, giving the book both a weighty, pacy and epic feel that far outweighs the one-shot formula. This achieved through a nifty transitions between the monologue and dialogue. Every word uttered seems dripped in deceit, which just adds fuel to the fire. The pair also continue the recent trend of putting out a one-shot and backdoor-ing in a sequel to come later in the year. Part of me is disappointed by this “trick”; when i buy a one-shot I expect to be just that, a one -shot, a one and done kind of deal.

Marcos Ramos provides an art style that is mixed bag. Close up shots are well details, faces show emotions and there is a sense of threat from Dracula and subservience from Vampi. Details take a bit of a vacation though when it comes to the wider camera angles, where Ramos looks to establish vibes, nuances and atmosphere. The latter is partly successful, though I wonder how much better the art would be if the characters were recognisable by anything other than their clothes. Dinei Ribeiro supplies the colors for the book, continuing the gothic horror theme which echoes darkness. It is a job well done. Lettering expert Taylor Esposito delivers a font that read well, doesn’t negatively impact the art; i enjoyed the contrast of the white font on the red background for the monologue. Finally, as we have all come to expect, there are raft of cover to choose from. I have to say that I found the main Lisner one a tad disappointing given the recent covers on Vampirella Dark Power; for my money, Gene Ha’s cover is great and the cosplay variant has charm.

The link to Valentine’s seems rather tenuous; Dracula loves Vampi; Vampi loves humans, it doesn’t exactly scream Cupid and love hearts. This book would have worked just as well without the day of love tie-in, being how it caters to all the darker aspects of Vampi twinned with the allure of the darkest of big bads.

Writing – 4 Stars

Art – 3.5 Stars

Colors – 4 Stars

Overall – 3.5 Stars

Written by; Tom Sniegoski & Jeannine Acheson
Art by; Marcos Ramos
Colors by; Dinei Ribeiro
Letters by; Taylor Esposito
Published; Dynamite Entertainment

Author Profile

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes

I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow

Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network