Incomprehensible, baffling mess

[rlvaugh]

The latest installment of Vampirella vs Dracula confirms that the feckless, gormless Joe Harris would better serve humanity as a hobo residing beneath a highway overpass than as any kind of writer. I'm not going to blame the editor for this claptrap, no one could fix this and there's no point in checking grammar as only a handful of people would ever read it anyway. And the publishers have clearly given up on the title if they allow something like this to see the light of day. The only rational explanation for how this person could end up a published comics writer is if his father is Stan Harris, the previous publisher of Vampirella, and he negotiated a deal for his son when he sold out to Dynamite. Hey, that actually makes sense. I'm going to go with that as it's the only thing that doesn't leave me mad as Hell about this fiasco.

[tony ingram]

Yes, but do you like it?

[comixfan1980]

I like Vampirella's core series, I liked her Scarlet Legion series, but Vampirella vs Dracula wasn't my cup of tea unfortunately. But don't think Dynamite has given up on Vampirella because of a weak effort in V vs D, because the book is still one of the company's biggest draws and sells within the top 150 comics offered every month, to give up on that as a publisher wouldn't make any sense

[positronic]

Different strokes for different folks, apparently. Vampirella vs. Dracula is the only Dynamite Vampi series that I do like. Other than Vampirella Archives and Vampirella Modern Masters, both of which are reprint series.

[shokoshu]

I'm relieved that other people have problems with the storytelling too.
(I'm getting rather daft lately )
Must be all the time-travel stuff. (But as an author, I know very well
how easy it is to presuppose that if you, the all-knowing author, can
follow the plot, the reader can too. As a consequence, you give too
few "leads" and this is the result.)

[positronic]

Strictly speaking, it's not time travel, but metafiction. The characters are trapped in a story that they are fated to repeat (with variations), in this case, the story told by Bram Stoker in his novel Dracula. The concept of this series is very similar to the Norse Ragnarok, where those gods are fated to play out their roles in an endless cycle. In this case, the new element to the cast is Vampirella, whose involvement in the story causes her to have memories of having done all this before (and thus the seeming time-travel). But Vampirella (like Dracula) is the only one who realizes (or is beginning to) that she is trapped in a cycle of fate. Only the characters that are cognizant of the fact that they are playing a role in a story have any chance of breaking the cycle.

All of this is based on a short story by Alan Moore (reprinted in the first issue), so what did you expect? The miniseries actually does a pretty good job of evoking the flavor of an Alan Moore story so far.

[Day Walker]

I just read VvsD #2 - and I have to side with the “Incomprehensible mess” crowd. I suppose I like more straight-forward story telling.

But, I can handle a mystery and complexity – if it’s well laid out. There’s just too much confusing stuff happing, not enough hints, and the artwork offers no clues –male characters all look too much alike – I cannot sort out who’s who . . . costuming is out of time and out of character.

Worst of all for a Vampirella title – there is not enough Vampriella. If she were a bit more front and center in the book, with a little more exposition - - - I could at least gain some entry to the story that way . . . as it is, it feels like she was shoe-horned into the story after the fact.

I see that this book is supposed to run for 6 issues . . . YIKES! I cannot imagine 4 more issues of this. . .

[positronic]

I just read VvsD #2 - and I have to side with the “Incomprehensible mess” crowd. I suppose I like more straight-forward story telling.

But, I can handle a mystery and complexity – if it’s well laid out. There’s just too much confusing stuff happing, not enough hints, and the artwork offers no clues –male characters all look too much alike – I cannot sort out who’s who . . . costuming is out of time and out of character.

Anyone who isn't a big fan (and very familar with) Bram Stoker's novel Dracula probably shouldn't be reading this. And if you can't wrap your brain around the central concept of metafiction, a story-within-a-story that is self-referential, you should probably just bail on this now. This story is on a whole 'nother level than the typical Vampi eye-candy storyline. It's not a mystery. It's the plot and characters of the novel Dracula, echoing down through history, with variations, in an (at least 'til now) unending cycle of fate.

. . as it is, it feels like she was shoe-horned into the story after the fact.

Yes, that's it exactly, quite literally. Congratulations. At least you understood part of it. It's Dracula's story, not Vampirella's.

[rlvaugh]

So, Positronic, you're the author, right?

[Captain Canuck]

I don't know if he wrote it, but I admit that he's kind of selling me on it...