Nothing happened this issue. End of review. Not really, that’s the quick version of it though. I like the Legenderry world but it hasn’t quite earned the cache that the Pulpy-verse has so I’m not as willing to give it legacy points just yet. I enjoyed the last issue despite is breakneck pace and cast of thousands hoping the next issue would narrow its focus down a bit. It didn’t. This issue moves fast, very fast, from location to location, story to story and character to character. This issue adds yet more characters while simultaneously unleashing a giant demon with very little context. We can assume he’s what was missing at the end of last issue but we don’t get a lot of information. He just kills a couple of people at the start and then shows up in an odd panel. I don’t really understand what the point is. I don’t really understand what the point of any of it is really. The mystery isn’t very compelling, the action isn’t very engaging and the characters are pretty one-dimensional. This might as well be another first issue. The first issue had the promise of paying off the confusion but this does nothing to further what was established there.
So far this thing is paced like a Liefeld story which immediately turns me off. The story isn’t progressed at all. It seems they think the world building consists of adding people and locations without paying off any of it. Other than being on the boring side the total lack of payoff is probably the most frustrating. Their shadowy organization gets a nod but that nod mostly consists of infighting. Who are they? What do they want? Why are they evil? What connection do they have to Vampirella? Why are they letting this new guy with a moustache push them around? Is his moustache magical? Can I put a stake through the moustache’s heart? Does that mean the moustache is a vampire? What kind of weird lip voodoo is he performing? MOUSTACHE! I understand you had a big ‘to do’ in a previous, larger narrative but assume I’m stupid. Assume I missed all that and I don’t have access to it. Compel me to find out what happened there by giving me a solid story and not just making me ask a bunch of stupid questions whose answers I don’t care about. Work towards something. Focus on something. This ADD storytelling is nonsense.
Two characters kill a bunch of cops just because I guess they decided they needed an action scene more than they needed plot which is kind of a running theme in this issue. There is very little continuity from the previous issue and virtually nothing from the last issue is referenced or built upon. And all of that might be forgivable if the prose wasn’t so far up its own ass. It’s steampunk so I understand the urge to write dense, overly formal purple prose but it doesn’t have to be everyone in every interaction. The checklist of steampunk fiction doesn’t start and end with 1) monocles 2) all goggles, everywhere, all the time 3) complex talky talky word making. People talked normally even in Victorian times. Not everyone needs to act like they take their ‘Word a Day’ calendar way too seriously. I don’t really know what’s happening and it’s hard for me to find any reason to care about what’s happening either. I kind of just wanted Vampirella fighting steampunk versions of monsters and this is getting more complicated than that and not in a good way.
Score: 2/5
Legenderry - Vampirella #2 Writer: David Avallone Artist: David T. Cabrera Colorist: Robby Bevard Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment Price: $3.99 Release Date: 3/11/15 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital