I came into this issue with the hope of something fun and frolicking, a nice complement to the monthly and more serious Vampirella title that has been pretty good for the most part. After reading the first few pages however, I was angered as I discovered a terrible truth…This one begins after the as yet released Vampirella #6 and arc finale occurs. I don’t know if the folks at Dynamite got it mixed up or what, but they did Nancy A. Collins a huge disservice by releasing this little group of “stories” before her arc ended properly. Okay, yeah, I know that the outcome that will play out in issue #6 is kind of predictable as we know what Vampirella must do in that particular story. And if she doesn’t, well we know that the outcome would be a little anticlimactic. But with showing this outcome before the fact and release, well it just kind of sucks. It threw off my mood completely making me not really wanting to venture onward. I did of course. But would it have been so bad to release this title next week and Vampirella #6 this week? They didn’t however and that’s that.
In reading the rest of this issue, it did at least help to erase the initial ill will I was feeling. But the damage had been done unfortunately. Vampirella Feary Tales #1 is a compilation of three separate stories that involve our heroine after she gets sucked into a cursed storybook alternate reality. From there, we see Vampirella having to deal with blue bearded demon spouses with key fixations, as well as a classic retelling of the Cinderella story with Vampirella in the lead role. The outcomes of these stories??? Let’s just say that Vampirella doesn’t like to be pushed around by anyone or anything.
These three “feary tales” are kind of all over the place with writer Nancy A. Collins’ intro and writer John Shirley’s ending tale being a good and reasonable bookends to a pretty goofy middle story by writer Devin Grayson. His story is simply not that good. Artistic wise though, Jack Jadson, Ronilson Freire, and Elmo Bondoc all do an excellent job with Ronilson Freire redeeming the crummy story by Devin Grayson with super renderings of Vampirella’s Blue Bearded beau and their smack down after she disobeyed a command.
Spoiler reveal aside, Vampirella Feary Tales #1 does an okay job in writing along the horizons of a campy character that has been going strong for about forty years. But this issue simply doesn’t add any new and spectacular dimensions to the character compared to what the primary title is shaping up to do. I would expect more from these creators and was frankly disappointed.
Score: 2/5
Writers: Nancy A. Collins, Devin Grayson, and John Shirley Artists: Jack Jadson, Ronilson Freire, and Elmo Bondoc Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment Price: $3.99 Release Date: 10/8/14 Format: One-Shot; Print/Digital