‘Vampirella Valentine’s Day Special 2022 #1’ Review
Written by Various | Art by Various | Published by Dynamite Comics
Some things are just no-brainer’s, and a Vampirella Valentine’s Day Special is definitely one of those. Sure, Vampi is a, er, vampire, but she’s got that whole sexy, skimpy outfit thing going on. She’s tailor-made for PG type love and sex, titillating enough to do the job, but with the supernatural angle to take the edge off. It was a quick decision when this was pitched at the Dynamite editorial meeting I’m guessing. So, here we get an extra-sized Special, with four different stories by four different creative teams, plus some great covers. Vampirella’s always ready for her close-up it seems.
Let’s take a look.
We kick off with ‘A Dame with Fangs’, by David Avallone and Vincenzo Carratu. It’s Valentine’s Day 1972, and a young beat cop is attacked by a vampire. Vampirella helps fight the vampire off and decides to take quite a shine to the young cop. They go for a drink in a bar, hit it off, and things end up the way you’d expect. Nick, the cop, managed to miss the whole ‘she’s got fangs’ thing somehow. That was it for love’s young dream, time moved on and Nick never saw her again. Until Valentine’s Day 2022, fifty years later, when Vampirella shows that even though she’s undead, she’s also all heart. A lovely little story, with nice writing and very nice art.
‘A Match made in Hell’, with script and art by George Kambadais is a nice little short, with a more cheesecake anime-style Vampirella having an unusual encounter with a Fire Demon and a Water Demon, and finding herself the gooseberry in the middle. Not often Vampirella’s not the centre of attention I’m guessing. It’s a little bit of throwaway fun, and I guess designed to show us that opposites do indeed attract.
‘Outlaws’, by Jacob Edgar and Andres Labrada, has a Bonnie and Clyde western vibe. Two young lovers, Rhett and Betsy, are in the habit of robbing banks in the old cowboy days of the frontier. They pull one job too many, and Betsy is shot. Rhett takes her to a mysterious woman they have been told about, a Miss Normandy, who helps people disappear. She is of course Vampirella, and she’s happy to help these two young criminals disappear. For good. I enjoyed this one, just as you expected Vampirella to help the two out, she did what came naturally. Very Twilight Zone. Nice story and art again.
Last up is ‘O Glorious Saint Valentine’, by Dearbhla Kelly, art by George Kambadais and Emiliana Pinna. We get all mythological with this one, as the Dearg-Due, an emotion demon, is targeted by Vampirella in Dublin. Not an evil spirit as such, but she thinks it a ‘kindness’ to kill those unlucky in love. Vampirella first hooks up with a local, Sean, who invites her to a Valentine’s Day meet up, but then their paths cross with the Dearg-Due. It’s all a little rushed, sadly, as there is the germ of a good story here, but not enough page count to really develop it. You do get a flavour of what the writer was trying to say, and the art is cartoony but solid. I did like the downbeat ending, though, showing that Vampirella doesn’t always win.
On balance, this was not a bad special at all. Four solid stories, all with a different angle to take, though no one overall killer story. Consistent, but not exceptional. I guess my favourite overall was the first story, I would have happily read a full issue with just that in it. Vampirella can be a tough character to make interesting, but here she is used as the catalyst in others stories, and that works just fine.
Happy Valentine’s Day from Vampirella.
She’ll get red on you.
