Action Lab Danger Zone/Full Moon Presents 2018
Written by Cullen Bunn & JimmyZ
Illustrated by Daniel J. Logan
Coloured by Yann Perrelet
Lettered by Micah Myers
After spending years trying to get her life back to a semblance of normality, what threat could possibly be big enough to reunite Michelle with Radu? A foe so evil and vile that the two of them need to travel to Prejmer in order to try and stop it.
Well I have to say that guys are crafting one hell of a story here. I really like the direction that this is taking as we see Michelle who as a Vampire herself has found a way to live her life, be a nurse and fly under the radar as it were. I really like the idea too being the night nurse a job no one really wants but someone who can’t move about during the day and in this day and age of course there is also direct deposit and such so who really needs to go into a bank any more when it call be done online? The whole idea that a vampire could exist and thrive in this day and age makes for a whole other story that I'm hoping Cullen will tell!
The way that this book is structured and how we see the whole ebb & flow of what we see the information come to life around them is extremely well done. Last issue ended with one of the whiz bang cliffhanger endings as we see not one but five Radu’s showing up, well four after she killed the one who followed her home from the hospital. So how on Earth are there five of him and why do they all look so drastically different? Well you will have to read the story to find out about that and why all but one are trying to kill Michelle.
There is something about this that you can’t quite put your finger on but can like and appreciate about how this is being told. There is an intelligence to this that you don’t normally see in slasher style horror. Old school psychological horror yes and this one seems to blend the two of those ideas together in a way that is inspired. It has all the classic kind of cheesy dialogue that we’d expect from the film itself and yet it’s done in a way that makes you laugh and cringe because of the way we see the violence, or the aftermath of violence. For me this is definitely a case where it surpasses the original.
I like the work that Daniel and Yann do on the interiors here. The way we see the characters come to life has this nice way about it that gives them the uniqueness they need and reminds me of the work we’ve seen in Puppet Master. The creativity and imagination on display here is magnificent and I love the subtlety of the work and how the varying weight of the linework is manipulated to show us the attention to detail and keep the Radu’s familiar and yet their own. The way we the page layouts utilised and then how the angles and perspective in the panels showcase a stellar eye for storytelling.
I think while this may be a horror series about vampires who have this idea of death and destruction to Michelle and then running rampant upon society well there’s a bloodthirstiness about it that is classic and yet a very psychological aspect to it that separates it from the rest of the field. Also that the violence isn’t on page but off panel is a nice touch because the carnage aftermath is much more effective since it let’s the readers mind run rampant with what happened.
Smart, sassy and spectacularly illustrated this is one horror story you really shouldn’t missing out on!