Zenescope Entertainment 2016
Written by Pat Shand
Illustrated by Vincenzo Riccardi
Coloured by Eleonora Bruni
Lettered by Jim Campbell
Liesel Van Helsing and Marian journey to the lower levels of a magical nightclub to stop a group of dark sorcerers from resurrecting the wicked Morgana, but in a twist of fate, Marian takes over the spell and resurrects Hades’ daughter, Angelica. However, when she appears before them, it seems that something has gone terribly wrong… Angelica is a vampire!
So now that Angelica is back and sees her father’s face she doesn’t believe it to be him. She’s disoriented, cold, angry and honestly all kinds of messed up. Who can blame her really and I love that she’s both working on instinct, draining a girl of her blood to warm up, and out of fear, attacking the man who wears her father’s face. That Pat has decided to go this route instead of the whole, risen, resurrected, brought back--whatever you wanna call it--being in control thing is more believable and something I think is more accurate.
The fight scenes here are pretty good too as you see Angelica kind of go on autopilot as a terrified and obviously powerful woman goes on the offensive. Throughout all this it’s really Hades and his anger towards Liesel and Marian that gets my attention. We get she was trying to do something nice for him but this kind of surprise well you are seeing how it turns out. The big question is why is Angelica a vampire? Sure Marian hijacked a summoning spell and quickly inserted Angelica into it but the answer is much deeper.
Her last meeting with the great love of her life, one her father didn’t approve of though to be honest what father ever will approve of his daughter’s choice in suitor. That’s the key here and I’m surprised Marian doesn’t see the connection but then again she’s from another realm so she may be slower to catch on. Though with all she’s been through and being Liesel’s friend well ya know what I think.
So this isn’t the only stuff going on in this issue. After all there’s also a larger plot going on around them. Olaf and his junkie vampires are up to no good and I have to say i’m rather impressed with what they’ve been up to. Seeing the kinky stuff happen and well go sour awfully quick that didn’t but the result of that was great. Also another character and one I hope Pat intends to explore after this is all over. I do like how he and his little gang were tied into the Angelica though or shall I say will be.
I’m excited for where this story seems to be going, The characterization is wonderful and what’s happening could potentially result in a change of the status quo among the characters you never know and I like that.
I do like Vincenzo’s art though it is a little too much on the animated movie side of things for me here. With this gang of Lion, Cat, Were-somethings and through the characters themselves I wish they had been more detailed, fearsome and evoked more of the scarier side of emotions. Vincenzo has a great eye for story flow and moving from page to page, panel to panel I just wasn’t caught up in any kind of anxiety or fear by what was happening. Honestly this story kind of calls for those emotions to pop.
Again another strong story with great characterization, plot, story advancement and a number of different ways things can play out. So the only way to know for sure is to come back.