Vampirella vs. Red Sonja #1 Review: A Bloated and Befuddling Crossover
Over the past few decades, crossover comics have gone from a profound novelty to an inevitability. If publishers have a roster of characters who could play better together than individually, they're probably going to match them up, and hopefully create some cleverly-constructed magic in the process. Enter Vampirella vs. Red Sonja #1, Dynamite's latest comic joining together its horror and sword-and-sorcery heroines – unfortunately, it's the most underwhelming example yet. Vampirella vs. Red Sonja #1 is undeniably clunky and overstuffed, but it has just enough of a spark of promise to prevent it from being a total wash.
Despite the title, Vampirella vs. Red Sonja #1 encompasses so much more than its two titular protagonists. Instead, this first issue dives into the new and returning characters of Project Superpowers, who have joined forces once again to stop a world-destroying threat. Some members of the group—including Sonja herself—believe that the threat could be magical in nature, putting a target on Vampirella's back in the process.
The structure of Vampirella vs. Red Sonja, and the surprising roster of characters it utilizes, is simultaneously fascinating and frustrating. The vast majority of Dan Abnett's script will surely draw comparisons to Crisis on Infinite Earths, with long stretches of costumed characters debating their next move in a massive intergalactic hangar. In the process, readers are introduced to a smattering of long-forgotten Golden Age and public domain superheroes, an idea that's novel, but quickly turns stale for readers who might not be familiar with those characters. I will never knock a book for utilizing public domain superheroes, as there are a near-infinite number of ways for that tactic to be fun in the current glut of superhero media. But that decision plays out in a frantic, but repetitive manner, basically boiling down to the newest hero and de facto audience proxy, Dyna Might, broadly fangirling over each character. For anyone not remotely familiar with those characters, or with the previous chapters of Vampirella: The Dark Powers and Red Sonja: The SuperPowers, devoting that much real estate to that kind of story—and to the still-undefined stakes of the entire series—is hardly rewarding.
In the process, Vampirella vs. Red Sonja is rarely able to be about Vampirella and Red Sonja, and about the novelty of seeing them cross paths in comics once again. There are some flourishes of fun in their conversations together – but they, too, begin to wear thin in favor of surface-level suspicions about magic and daemons. The decision to have Sonja speak in broken, translated English doesn't help this cause, especially as Abnett is currently writing a more eloquent and personality-filled version of her in the pages of Immortal Red Sonja. The overwhelming majority of Sonja and Vampirella solo series have found ways to be accessible to a wide variety of readers, even at their most convoluted, but the decision that Abnett makes with both of the heroines leaves much to be desired.
Alessandro Ranaldi's art matches the scrappiness and ambition of the script – for better, and for worse. The character designs have a blend of cartoonish whimsy and worthwhile verisimilitude, especially where Sonja and Vampirella's character designs are concerned. Like the script, the art doesn't go to great lengths to make this ever-growing roster of characters immediately welcoming to readers, but it does add just enough intrigue. Ellie Wright's colors ground everything in bold teals and reds, but with some moments of inconsistency, especially regarding Sonja's skin tone. Jeff Eckleberry's lettering doesn't help the overall tonal dissonance of the series overall, with random buzzwords highlighted in various accompanying colors with no real impact.
Conceptually, Vampirella vs. Red Sonja is filled with overwhelming potential. The idea of the two heroines crossing paths again is delightful, as is the idea of reuniting and expanding Dynamite's original and public domain superheroes in a Crisis-like event. But when you try to marry the two concepts together, key things like emotional investment and artistic consistency fall through the cracks. Despite its capable and entertaining creative team, Vampirella vs. Red Sonja #1 is too exhausting to be worth the while.
Published by Dynamite Comics
On November 2, 2022
Written by Dan Abnett
Art by Alessandro Ranaldi
Colors by Ellie Wright
Letters by Jeff Eckleberry
Cover by Lucio Parrillo