Dynamite Entertainment 2018
Story by Cullen Bunn & Blacky Shepherd
Written by Cullen Bunn
Illustrated by Blacky Shepherd
Lettered by Taylor Esposito
It’s the big question of 2018: How could Vampirella and the Reanimator not have met before now?!!?! Herbert West--the Reanimator--has long sought the secret to perfecting his reagent and break death’s hold on mankind once and for all. The key to his success lies in only one place – the forbidden tomb of the Aztec god of death! But disturbing sleeping gods is as troubling (to put it mildly) as raising the uncontrollable, murderous dead... especially when this deity is an ancient enemy of Vampirella of Drakulon! It's vampire versus mad scientist in a battle that threatens to tear the gates of the underworld asunder!
Taking Vampirella and putting in a story with these unexpected characters is a trend I wholeheartedly support. Dynamite has been killing it with these stories and while I love Dejah but when I saw this I got even more excited. Which surprised me because honestly I have never been the biggest fan of Reanimator, Herbert has been around and on occasion I have seen and read enough to know who he is and what he’s about so that alongside who and what Vampirella is seems like that unlikely combination that wouldn’t make sense.
I wasn’t expecting what we got however and honestly wow this is beyond amazing. Cullen and his storytelling is something I always look forward to because he’s so damn good that I never know what to expect. Blacky however steals the thunder from Cullen on this one and that I hadn’t thought possible. We will dive into that later in more depth but it’s still time to talk about the book overall. So the way the story is structured and how we see both characters establishing themselves and how they fit into this world is nicely done.
The characterisation here is stellar. Cullen nails the arrogance of Herbert West and I have to say sitting there as open up and his whole attitude and demeanour is on display through this sensational narration. As he moves through the story we see him in a myriad of ways all of which are these perfect demonstrations of his character. Vampirella is delightfully shown to still be a kind of saviour to humans while hunting the hunters as it were. I like seeing that and establishing that this is a supernatural world as well, it was nicely handled and subtle so kudos to Cullen.
Blacky is utterly amazing on the visuals here. While not as harsh in his lines I was instantly reminded of Drew Hayes, god rest his soul. The brilliance of the black and white work that even though inked still retains very a pencil quality which gives off the most unique, gorgeous and thrilling effects. It is risky to do this much work, the attention to detail is mind blowingly good and black and white doesn’t allow you hide any mistakes and the confidence that we see here is such that just I dunno wow. The imagination, creativity and sheer amount of such linework that’s been manipulated within and inch of it’s life is jst that good. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off a stellar eye for storytelling. Then there’s the backgrounds being utilised and the one colour that makes sense which we see. Blacky is just downright sensational and I can’t praise him enough and now I need his work in my collection.
With a premise to the story that ties the two together perfectly Cullen manages to bring us one of the most unusual and natural feeling stories around. P.S. it’s one that I want to see as more than a “B-movie” it’s that solid. The pacing, the characterisation and the overall vibe and feel of this book is something that we’ll talk about for decades to come. Yes people it really is that good.