VAMPIRELLA (VOL. 5) #16, available from Dynamite comics on December 30th, 2020, begins the ‘Interstellar’ story arc with Vampirella back on the therapy couch recounting her adventure to return to Drakulon. Christopher Priest (aka PRIEST) uses Vampirella’s therapy session to fill in tons of backstory and exposition for an informative first issue.
Long Story Short
[SPOILERS]
We begin with Vampirella on a therapy couch telling about her adventures in Ashthorne, her rapey half-brother, her potentially dead mother Lilith, and many, many, many backstory elements. The one down for this issue is the mountain of backstory Priest crams into these pages with * upon ** upon * to reference other issues in the series, other series altogether, and even an omnibus that’s not out yet. It gets to be a lot, and while it may be necessary to tell this story, I sometimes felt like I should be taking notes.
Moving on.
Vampirella has a heartfelt conversation with Drago about their mutual “mother.” Drago tries to convince Vampirella to stay in Ashthorne for the sake of their vampire brethren, but Vampirella views her mother’s passing as an opportunity to feel truly free and move on. Despite the trouble nature of their relationship, this scene was nice bit of character development for the titular character.
Flying off into the night, Vampirella decides to unwind with some recreational blood-drinking, film-watching, and lovemaking. You really get the sense that a weight has been lifted from her shoulders, and she’s ready to live a less complicated life. Until she recognizes the random male consort from their lovemaking session.
The sleeping male is a dead ringer for the scientist who dimension hopped to Drakulon and brought Vampirella to Earth in the first place. I was unfamiliar with this piece of Vampirella lore, and it has a distinct Wonder Woman/I Dream Of Jeannie flavor to her origin that’s familiar while still unique.
Eustankhios, the talking demon rat familiar, suddenly appears to warn Vampirella that she’s seeing things that remind her of her origins because she desperately wants to save Lilith. That saving others is why she was crated in the first place. And it’s at this point that “Stan” informs her that Katie, the girl who witnessed Vampirella’s survival of the plane crash, is still obsessed with her and is following her to Ashthorne.
If it seems the story is convoluted as all get out at this point, you’d be almost right. The story jumps here, there, and everywhere to set up what’s to come. What makes this issue more complicated is the subtle suggestion that Vampirella is not entirely a reliable narrator. Is “Stan” really there? Is Lilith actually alive or is she engaging in wishful thinking? Who knows? If you’re comfortable going with Priest’s stream-of-consciousness writing style, you’ll have no trouble following along.
Form here. we learn Katie is headed to Ashthorne to find Vampirella and, hopefully, become a vampire herself to obtain power. Near Ashthrone, Katie is confronted by Zylaven, one of the surviving members of the Sacred Six, who offers her a cursed candle that will give her the power she craves without becoming a vampire. Katie, in her desperate hunger for power, lights the candle and swaps dimensional places with Draculina, bringing Vampirella’s “sister” to our world.
Finally, Vampirella decides to go back to Drakulon, and her starting point is with the scientist that brought her to Earth in the first place… 50 years ago. Oy! That’s a lot.
Was It Good?
It was okay. Not super great. Not terrible. There’s just so much story and backstory to absorb that it felt like a history lecture more than a piece of entertainment. That said, if you’re behind on the previous Vampirella issues and related-titles, there’s no doubt you’re all caught up at this point.
Priest’s writing style is very stream-of-consciousness. I couldn’t say for sure this issue had a distinct beginning, middle, and end, but it definitely went somewhere. I know it sounds like this is a sour review, but I’m really not down on this book. It’s a very informative setup, and so I’m interested to see what happens in the next issue.
Ergün Gündüz is a new name for me on the art, and it looks great in this issue. Gündüz gives the characters authentic poses, postures, facial expressions, and gestures. There’s a film quality to Gündüz’s art that suits this material well. I’m interested to see how well it holds up when the big battles and more comicbooky action scenes come around.
Willie Schubert deserves an award from the sheer volume of dialog happening in this issue. Despite the mountain of information, I was never visually assaulted with the dreaded wall of text. Schubert cleverly used caption boxes to keep the conversation between patient and therapist going as a visually appealing voiceover that I quite liked.
Final Thoughts
VAMPIRELLA (VOL. 5) #16, available from Dynamite comics on December 30th, 2020, gives you a whole lot of information in a very short space to prep you for the big meeting between Vampirella and Drakulina. The writing meanders but you still feel like the story makes forward progress, and the art adds a layer of grounded-ness that makes the exposition more authentic. I would recommend this book for Vampirella fans.