Vampirella vs. Reanimator

by Cullen Bunn, Blacky Shepherd (Contributor)

Herbert West--the Reanimator--has long sought the secret to perfecting his reagent and break death's hold on mankind once and for all. The key to his success lies in only one place--the forbidden tomb of the Aztec god of death! But disturbing sleeping gods is as troubling (to put it mildly) as raising the uncontrollable, murderous dead... especially when this deity is an ancient enemy of Vampirella of Drakulon! It's vampire versus mad scientist in a battle that threatens to tear the gates of the underworld asunder!

Genres: Comics, Horror, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Sequential Art, Vampires, Fantasy

104 pages, Paperback

Published August 27, 2019

About the author

Cullen grew up in rural North Carolina, but now lives in the St. Louis area with his wife Cindy and his son Jackson. His noir/horror comic (and first collaboration with Brian Hurtt), The Damned, was published in 2007 by Oni Press. The follow-up, The Damned: Prodigal Sons, was released in 2008. In addition to The Sixth Gun, his current projects include Crooked Hills, a middle reader horror prose series from Evileye Books; The Tooth, an original graphic novel from Oni Press; and various work for Marvel and DC. Somewhere along the way, Cullen founded Undaunted Press and edited the critically acclaimed small press horror magazine, Whispers from the Shattered Forum.

All writers must pay their dues, and Cullen has worked various odd jobs, including Alien Autopsy Specialist, Rodeo Clown, Professional Wrestler Manager, and Sasquatch Wrangler.

And, yes, he has fought for his life against mountain lions and he did perform on stage as the World's Youngest Hypnotist. Buy him a drink sometime, and he'll tell you all about it.

Visit his website at www.cullenbunn.com.

Reviews

[L. McCoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Umm... Vampirella and ReAnimator written by Cullen Bunn? Well, I was obviously gonna read this one.

What’s it about?
For those of you who don’t know ReAnimator is a fucked up, cheesy cult classic horror film (one that IMO is fun but nothing amazing) about a mad scientist who wants to be able to bring dead people back to life and Vampirella is a sexy vampire/alien/superhero that fights monsters.
Well, in this story the main character from ReAnimator in his quest to conquer death ends up crossing paths with one of Vampi’s enemies so yeah, crazy shit starts happening there.

Pros:
The story is pretty good. I mean it’s not anything particularly deep or meaningful but it’s fun, fairly interesting and a pretty entertaining mix.
The art is really cool. It does this thing where it’s black and white but with a few colors added here and there in the various panels so it’s super cool looking and this comic is probably worth checking out just for the cool art throughout alone.

The action scenes are frequent and bad-ass. It’s notable that the image I used as an example is one of the few pages that would probably be allowed on Goodreads, this comic is gory as hell but it’s an actiony horror comic so I like it that way! Not to mention how exciting it is.
The horror is well done. Lots of exciting monster stuff, gore and even a bit of creepiness here and there which is good because that’s what I’d want that from this crossover.

Cons:
The characters... okay yeah, I didn’t care about them. I guess that fits since that is one of the problems that made the film ReAnimator good but not great IMO but it’s really not fitting for Vampirella since she’s one of my favorite superheroes. In this she’s still kinda cool but seemed more like a standard superhero IMO. The villain is kinda the generic “do evil because bad” type.

(Couldn’t resist, too fitting for those kinda villains)
This comic is a little predictable.
It’s not as funny as I was hoping. Between Vampirella’s quips and ReAnimator’s cheesiness I really was expecting more humor.

Overall:
This is in the good, not great category. It’s flawed but entertaining!
The cool art style, entertaining story and gory action make this a fun comic that I would recommend to people who are fans of one or the other but it’s not a masterpiece by any means and if you aren’t a fan of Vampirella and/or ReAnimator already this probably isn’t for you.

4/5

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting mashup between Vampirella and H.P. Lovecraft's Herbert West: Re-animator. Herbert brings back the Aztec Gods of death only to open a wormhole between the world of mankind and Vampi's world, Drakulon. I particularly appreciated the interesting style of interior illustration and the awesome cover art. Recommended to followers of Vampirella.

[Tiffany · Rating 2 out of 5]

vol 1

Idk I wasn't really feeling this graphic novel, I'm not sure why. it's just didn't grab me like others do.

[Robert Hultman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cool story arc with some great artwork and a tale fitting Vampirella. So many of the newer Vampi stories are super lame. These sort of mainstream superhero comics that just don’t fit what Vampirella has always been about (campy, sexy, gothic, deadly, and dark tales of monsters and magic). This is more like the old stuff. The good stuff.

[Julio Bonilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here’s the problem with immortality.

If you're up late on a Saturday night and have nothing to do, read this paperback. It brings together mad scientist Herbert West, who brings the dead back to life, and Vampirella, the alien/vampire from Draculon...

The black-and-white interior gives the graphic novel a gothic/retro feel. As it should, being that Vampirella was originally introduced October, 1969.

[Marcelo Soares · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tava com saudade de um Bad Girl na minha vida.
Dr Herbert West, o Reanimator, tem uma ideia brilhante; colocar a fórmula restauradora na deusa da morte de algum templo da América Latina.
Não tem como dar errado.
Claro, a deusa da morte sai matando geral e quer abrir o portal para a morte final ou coisa assim.
Tipo, por que não o deus do chocolate?
Porém a deusa da morte é também inimiga da Vampi que percebe que o retorno da deusa e vai sair na porrada. Aparentemente, séculos atrás, o casal de deuses da morte - são dois - foram a Drakulon e levaram uma surra da Vampirella que colocou os dois nas pirâmides maias, astecas ou sei lá o quê.
Enquanto a Vampi e a deusa saem no tapa e puxão de cabelo, o Reanimator vai lá e ressuscita o deus da morte também, o problema é que como são deuses quando ressuscitados eles ficam ainda mais poderosos e matam a Vampirella.
Vocês já sabem para que lado isso vai, né?
Sim, o cara ressuscita a Vampirella que, teoricamente, já era uma espécie de vampira alienígena demônia casca grossa pra caralho, então ela vira uma espécie de vampira alienígena demônia zumbi ainda mais casca grossa e sai na porrada franca e sincera com dois deuses da morte.
Sério.
Não fica melhor que isso.
É um gibi pra quem curte as Bad Girls da Dynamite, se não é a tua praia, nem chega perto.

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

This crossover sees Doctor Herbert West, the ReAnimator, bringing an ancient death goddess back to life. Soon, however, it becomes clear that the goddess is an old enemy of Vampirella, from her homeworld of Drakulon, and only Vampirella can prevent the extinction of all life on Earth.

This is a fairly cliché affair, with no real surprises to be had.
A guy reawakens a seductive ancient evil, soon finds out that the evil is bad, hero gets beaten, hero gets a power boost and returns for Round 2. It's predictable and doesn't really do anything of great interest with either of the title characters.

What I really did like, however, was Blacky Shepherd's artwork, which cleverly uses a black-and-white style with occasional colour highlights to great effect, particularly when blood is one of the few elements which always appears in colour.

* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *

[The Smoog · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, if I’d have picked this up any way other than through Kindle Unlimited, I’d have felt robbed. There is zero substance to the plot (I really cant believe they stretched this out to four issues, the story is "West wakes up goddess, Vampirella gets beaten up, Vampirella then beats up baddies"; there is quite literally nothing else here) and the artwork - which could be described as mediocre at best - is almost entirely in black and white with the occasional splash of colour, which does nothing but highlight the boring monochrome and characterless protagonists. At least it’s short I suppose.

I feel that two stars is overly generous tbh, but can’t quite bring myself to give it one. Overall, look elsewhere, there’s far better ways to spend your time and money.

[Sian D · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first time reading Vampirella (and ReAnimator!). I liked the story and the illustrations of the portal (and general gore) were really cool! I liked that the reanimated characters had yellow or purple eyes, like the elixir.

Three stars instead of four because I was confused by Vampirella putting Mictecacihuatl in the portal between Earth and Drakulon and it taking one second and 'ten-thousand lifetimes', but Vampirella could pass through no problem - was this because she is 'one with the gateway'? The story lost me at the end...

The cover variants in the back were good - I liked Nik Virella's 'Seduction' covers most. I would like to read more Vampirella.

[Russ Spence · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't hopeful starting this, having read through more than a few Vampirella duds, and never being impressed with the reanimator film/s, so a team up didn't seem too promising, but this was possibly one of the better stories, helped by good artwork with some nice touches. The Reanimator of the title resurrects an ancient goddess of death, who has a past with Vampirella, and their stories intercede with shocking results. Could have been better but there are some nice touches, like the giant death spiders (just in case you thought giant death spiders weren't enough, just wait till you find out what goes into them).

[Dallas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Underrated as hell. The best of the ReAnimator comics. For someone who has ReAnimator as a special interest and read the comic adaptation for just a few extra lines of dialogue, this was truly a pleasure. The way Herbert West is brought into the spiritual side of things actually works and is extremely well written. A must for anyone who loves both Re-Animator and things like Army of Darkness.

[Werewolfgal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very disappointing outing for Vampi. The artwork is terribly uneven and Vampirella hardly looks like the same person frame to frame. There's not a lot going on story-wise and Vampi and Herbert never really get to interact much but the corpse spiders are pretty cool.

[Ethan Knierim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun, simple and brief story. The colour-splashed monochrome illustrations were cool.

[melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only got partially into this one.
Not really a fan of the art style.
Did not finish.
Downloaded via Kindle Unlimited.

[Harper · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very meh crossover with rough art and wonky layouts

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

i like how they call herbert a little guy