Hack/Slash vs Vampirella #4

Writer: Shawn Aldridge

Artist: Rapha Lobosco

Colors: Chris O’Halloran

Published by: Dynamite

Sometimes, when reading comics, all you want is to turn off your brain and experience an awesome, action-packed book that doesn’t require too much prior knowledge about the characters to fully enjoy. This is exactly what this mini-series has become for me in the past few months.

Adminitedly, I am a fan of Vampirella, but this is my first foray into the world of Hack/Slash, and I have to say, I am really enjoying it. This series seems almost purpose built to generate interest in both of these properties and I would say that it has been a great success.

As for the content of the book this month, it starts off exactly where the last issue left us: an empowered Blood Queen has just stabbed Vampirella with the biggest freaking stake I’ve ever seen, leaving Vampirella to bleed out. However, Vampirella is no ordinary vampire, or as she reminds the reader, “not that kind of vampire”, so this afront by the Blood Queen is merely an inconvenience rather than a true death sentence.

After a quick getaway by our heroes and a pretty sweet scene between Vampirella and Vlad, we are now in the final push towards the conclusion of the series as the Blood Queen catches up to the heroines and Vlad in the Las Vegas desert - with a pretty cool scene where we are reminded that Las Vegas was a pretty seedy town back in the day when we discover that the Blood Queen can raise the dead.

On art duty, Lobosco’s lines combined with O’Halloran’s colors continue to jump off the page and have been quite the added bonus to this series. Too often with mini’s like these, the art duty will be given to a more subpar talent, but not in this case. It’s always great to discover a new art team (to me in this case) that I’ll look for in the future.