Vampirella: The Red Room #4 Review


The conclusion to this somewhat entertaining saga is here, but does it go out with a whimper or a bang?  Read on to find out.

The official description from Dynamite:

Having unleashed a mighty fiend of the Old World upon its former masters, Vampirella has a catastrophe on her hands, as the compound is engulfed in a conflagration, with hideous killers roaming the night. One by one, she’ll battle a host of monsters to keep Hell from overcoming Arkansas.

Whenever a story line arrives at its ending it can be a really tricky thing to bring to fruition whether the creative team is competent or not.  In this case we have a skilled bunch behind this mini-series doing their best to tie-up their various plot threads even as the proverbial cracks in their work start to show.

Dan Brereton delivers a competent script that does what it needs to do in order to complete this tale.  From the dialogue to the pacing this romp is a solid read that offers a somewhat clean and satisfying but predictable end.  The author allows the human and monster drama to revel in itself, while our heroes ultimately whimper out with their rather stereotypical conclusions that lead them to a somber revelation.  Overall the comic succeeds in delivering on each of its set-up plot lines, but not all of them wrap up as well as they honestly should have.

Jean Diaz does a fine job on the art, offering more than competent pencil strokes that inform and extenuate the narrative.  The overall line work and panel designs look exactly as you would expect them to, especially coming from a somewhat seasoned artist.  However, there were a few select moments where the skill on display came off as unnecessarily blocky and rather bland much to its visual detriment.

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Vampirella: The Red Room #4 is a somber but somewhat thought out conclusion that will leave fans more than likely with some mixed feelings about this experience.  Nonetheless it still squeaks by with a recommendation.

3/5

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