REVIEW: Swords of Sorrow: Vampirella & Jennifer Blood #3 (of 4)

I have made a big mistake.  A mistake so grievous, so terrible I barely give it utterance.

I have purchased Jennifer Blood: A Woman’s Work is Never Done Vol:1.  I didn’t mean to, but I couldn’t resist the TPB at only £3, written by Garth Ennis.  So why is this a mistake?

The Jennifer Blood that is currently featured in this tie-run mini series, bears hardly and resemblance to the Jennifer in the TPB.  Granted, her life experiences will have changed her and I admit, I am not an expert on her history.  But the original book seems so fresh, so darkly violent that it makes the reader smile and grimace all at the same time.

This isn’t Nancy A. Collins fault. Collins is stuck with the current version of Jennifer who does seem more than a little watered down.  It could be that at this stage of her life, there is very little “civilian” characters to interact with, so the juxtaposition of her normal and working life just doesn’t exist.   So onto this issue, which I am glad to say, doesn’t feature  a too lengthy “previously on….” element.  Why it needs one at all is kind of beyond me.  Are readers attention spans really that low?  Anyways, Jennifer is on the trail of Vampirella who seems to be setting her title sharing cohort up for murder.  As with most of the tie-ins, I would have liked to see more interaction between the characters, especially as how natural these two seem with each other, check out Jennifer’s comment to Vampirella after suffering an injury for example.

The art is again by Dave Acosta and again, I feel lets the book down somewhat.  At first glance, I thought this looks terrible.  But upon second reading, I changed my mind.  The splash panels, for the most part are done well, with only one of them suffering from a perspective problem.  The smaller panels however, lose some details. This affects the whole body in question; facially and pose wise with some of the poses seemingly looking wooden.  Still, there is a decent amount of drive in the panels, helping the story along, I just want more details.  Talking about the art, I have to mention the gorgeous cover by Billy Tan, who captures the cartoon element, nearly Bruce Timm like, aspect of Vampirella to near perfection.

With the story ending next issue, I am a tad confused what the point of the story was.  Hopefully Collins has something up her sleeve, which will bring this tale into the main arc.  With her work on the main Vampirella book, it’s clear that Collins has her finger on the non-pulse of the character that is due to be a major player in the main series.  I just wish the same could be said for Ms. Blood.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Author Profile

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes

I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow

Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network

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