Vampirella: The interestingly dressed vampire slayer

It's been a long time since I read Vampirella. I tried back in my teenage years because of out of control hormones and Millar and Morrison having a stab at the vampire princess. It was good, but a second dip into older material felt almost at odds what the two Scots had done, and made their run seem like it was good thanks to the calibre of the writers.

This is the start of Dynamite's attempt to reinvent the character, although the plot seems very much a continuation of a previous series. I recognised quite a few of the references even from my very minor exposure to the character, which is an interesting choice.

There's no denying Vampirella's look is one of the most ridiculous in all of comics, but here Dynamite make it make sense. Her traditional costume is exactly that. Traditional, something with great meaning to the vampires, but for the majority of the story she's wearing a pretty sharp red and black suit, and the costume only turns up in two sequences. One in a vision as Vampirella tries to find herself, and again when Dracula dresses her up as Queen of the Vampires.

That said, the storyline is a bit light on a few character moments. Vlad Dracula could have done with a bit more exploration, Eric Traughtman seems to take the approach that just calling him Dracula should be enough, but then have him rely on Vampirella to save him suggests that maybe we needed a bit more depth there. The human sidekick adjusts to this new life a bit too quickly, though the last issue sort of addresses that in retrospect, it just feels wrong as it's happening originally.

I had enjoyed Millar and Morrison's take years ago, and this continues that with a not so out there take, but the same vampire hunting vampire sensibility. I'd briefly read the next issue after this arc a long time ago, and combined with what I read here, I'm very much interested in where this is going.