Vampirella--Dark Reflections #4 // Review
She isn’t ho they’re looking for...exactly. She’s...the daughter of who they’re looking for. But she might be exactly who they’re looking for under the circumstances. There’s this head in a box that’s been doing a lot of thinking. It has an idea of how to handle the chaos of the situation in Vampirella--Dark Reflections #4. The writing team of Tom Sniegoski and Jeannine Acheson continue a very complex and pleasantly weird horror that is conjured to the page by artist Daniel Maine and colorist Francesa Cittarelli. The art team finds a very appealing visual foundation for the weirdness of the story in another satisfying issue.
The daughter of Vampirella works for an organization known as Reality Corp. They travel different threads across the fabric of reality. She has come to be in a world in which a Vampirella had been killed by the chaos Queen Tenebris. The time to act is now. The queen is a real threat to the rest of reality, so it’s going to be very, very difficult to challenge her. The head in the box has a pretty solid plan, though. Without any other distractions, it’s had a hall of a lot of time to think.
Sniegoski and Acheson continue to roll through a whole bunch of different aspects of things which really should be a lot more coherent if they're going to make any kind of sense. That being said, they really have a very firm understanding of how to increase intensity in an inherently chaotic story. It doesn't hurt that they are using time-honored plot elements which have their origin in some of the most fundamental adventure fiction. All they have to do is plug in the right ideas around the corners of everything and it starts to make sense. And it's actually a lot of fun.
It doesn't hurt that the team is really good at framing the drama. there's a lot of standing around, looking concerned. The people who are standing around looking concerned, happened to do so in a way that looks distinctly strange and strangely heroic as they do so. Maine and Cittarelli give the title character the distinct mix of power and beauty that makes her feel perfectly at the center of the story, even though it happens to involve all large ensemble of different characters that don't necessarily fit together all that well.
The overall movement of the action seems to be doing a fairly good job of delivering the intensity, even if the licked at the heart of it doesn't really seem all that well defined. The important thing is that it's all moving with the right kind of momentum under the power of visuals that feel suitably intense. It may not be all that clear exactly what's happening, but it's fun to watch it happen. And it's fun to watch the build-up to a big show-down in another fun trip into incomprehensible madness with a very appealing hero.
