In "Kauzstadt", the penultimate episode of the "Our Lady of Shadow" story arc, Vampirella and Drago travel to Eastern Europe in search of the vampire blood necessary to defeat Lady Umbra, the Queen of Shadows. Their first stop is in Serbia, where they must locate and hunt down the rarest of vampires, the eerily beautiful Leptirica, before heading to the Transylvanian village of Kauzstadt, home of the King of the Nosferatu - who also happens to be Vampirella's half-brother! From the creative team of writer Nancy A. Collins (Swamp Thing, Sunglasses After Dark) and Patrick Berkenkotter (Avengers/Invaders, The Torch).
Patrick is once again on pencils, with Dennis on inks, Jorge on colours and Rob on letters with Terry on the cover art. I've remarked before about Patrick's creature designs, about how good they are, and it all applies doubly to his character design for the Leptirica, whch was excellent all the way. Kind of a shame that we didn't really get to see much of this Vampire rarity, but what we do see is quite great. The second half of the issue is also great, particularly in how Patrick and the others draw the Nosferatu. Read Full Review
While this is OK and very entertaining reading, it is important to maintain a contact with the roots of the characters. Collins and Berkenkotter clearly have a great respect for this character's early roots, even though they are not going all the way back. The original VAMPIRELLA was an interstitial anthology hostess as well as a character. Her back story included being a winged alien from the Planet Drakulon. As the Warren series progressed, she became less of a science fiction alien and more of a traditional horror character. It is this second 'incarnation' of VAMPIRELLA that Collins and Berkenkotter are embracing, and they are doing an outstanding job. Read Full Review
Vampirella #5 stands as an engaging example for how any creative team needs to keep the quality of their arc, despite entering the fifth outing of their narrative journey. What we get from this experience is a clear and charged jaunt that keeps the supernatural elements at play without cheapening the events that came before. In other words: this comes recommended. Read Full Review
Vampirella gives us a pretty good chapter here in the storyline as the first half is a very personal and detailed bit involved the good professor, his life and interest in the world of butterflies and just how he became so enamored of what it was that would kill him in the end. Read Full Review
Even with the nice art however, I found this issue to be disappointing overall. I know that the previous issues have been wonderful and the ending is set up to be quite good. But somewhere here, things never quite land where they need to land in providing the build up. It was quite simply a "blah" issue. But, one issue doesn't make a series and I fully expect things to return to their normal solid state with the arc wrap next issue. Read Full Review
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