(I received a free copy of this book, through NetGalley, in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
While I haven’t heard of Vampirella, I have seen most of the movies in the Alien franchise. It was an interesting take, to see a vampire having to deal with the devastation caused by the aliens.
I would have liked to see a bit more background to Vampirella and perhaps something of the background of the characters on Mars. I would have liked to see a bit more in the way of character interactions, since even though the horror elements were good, there was too much in the way of characters I didn’t really care about getting hurt or killed.
It was interesting to see the prejudices people had towards Vampirella’s kind. I was also intrigued by the ancient civilisation that was found… and it was even more interesting that they had the chance to meet one of the members; though I didn’t really much like him at first. I was a bit thrown by how he kept on referring to humans as cattle… but that did make sense, as the attitudes of his kind were clearly very different to how Vampirella viewed humans.
I was a bit confused by the random garden area that the aliens were able to attack and the characters who had been killed. It was good to see Vampirella able to grow her own wings and I thought they looked really pretty. I also thought that it was good she had weaknesses and that she couldn’t just fight; she had to run and shelter. Even though it might have been cool to see an alien and a vampire battle it out, I appreciated the fact that it was as realistic as it could be, considering the supernatural/science fiction elements.
I liked the artwork and I felt the aliens’ scary appearance were portrayed particularly well. I knew what was coming several times, which made me tense up… especially in the scene with the face-huggers.
There were some nice human elements and while I didn’t get to know the secondary characters well, I had little trouble with the main characters. I’d be interested in seeing more of Vampirella in other comics.
Ink of Blood 