Review: Vampironica #2

There was a time that Riverdale was a sleepy little town with a group of friends and classmates having fun and funny adventures. And even though those comics still come out regularly, the world of the Archies in Riverdale is much more complicated these days. There is the version that follow the mood of the hit TV show, where the town is filled with murder mysteries and teen lust and love in Riverdale. There is another where Jughead roams the town as a werewolf and has to find ways to protect his friends and family from his curse. And now Veronica Lodge has become a vampire.

This issues slows things down a lot after the action packed initial issue. And who came blame Meg and Greg Smallwood for slowing it down. It would be difficult to maintain the pace of the first issue. However, instead of pumping the brakes, the Smallwoods have slammed them hard. After a couple of pages following up on the action from the last issue, the pace comes to a standstill as Dilton Lectures Veronica on the complete history of vampires and the powers they have for eight pages.

I get that Veronica has to learn about her new situation, but it would be more fun if she discovered the backstory as she tries to figure out why her parents were in business with Ivan and why he decided to feed on them. Instead, Diton mysteriously has tons of books in his bedroom about vampires like he is a junior Giles.

While this book does clearly reference Buffy the Vampire Slayer in places (How could it not, in a book about vampires in high school?), When Veronica is allowed to let loose it is clear that this books is looking to be something different from another Buffy retread.

The best part of this issue, has to be Veronica“s nightmare (daymare?) which helps her come to terms with her new situation. It has a touch of humor which is nice as it also looks into Veronica“s fears about what she“s become.

Visually, I appreciate how much this book keeps to the red and purple tones, which helps sell the creepiness and horror of what is going on here. Greg Smallwood (The Archies, Moon Knight, James Bond: Kill Chain) manages to balance making Riverdale both a creepy place and still the friendly small town that most readers expect.

The Archie horror books, I“m including Sabrina in with them, although I“m not sure if that is official, have all been really interesting takes on the classic monsters and Vampironica is shaping up to takes its place among them. I only hope that they can fix the plotting issues and make the exposition flow more naturally in the future.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Writers: Greg Smallwood & Meg Smallwood
Artist: Greg Smallwood
Letterer: Jack Morelli
Publisher: Archie Comic Publications

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Andy Hall

Sent from the future by our Robot Ape overlords to preserve the timeline. Reading and writing about comics until the revolution comes. All hail the Orangutan Android Solar King!