Vampires: The Eternal #1

Vampires invade the Grimm Universe – and these ones don’t sparkle. When Samira, the Queen of all Vampires, returns to Earth after over a century of banishment, she rallies her troops in a mission to kill every monster and High Born who won’t bow before her. Can Helsing, daughter of the famed vampire hunter himself, send Samira back to the grave before the world is enslaved? • * UNLEASHED tie-in!• * Van Helsing back-up stories in each issue!

Forget everything you know about those humane vampires because these ones don’t mess around.  Set after the events of Unleashed number zero and one (if you haven’t read those, go grab them first), Vampires: The Eternal focuses on Samira, queen of the vampires.  She’s out trying to find the remnants of her people that were left behind in order to strengthen their numbers for the coming war between the humans and monsters.  However, just because she’s been trapped, doesn’t mean Samira’s been sitting idly by.  Samira and all those with her have grown more powerful over the years, possibly even more than Sela and The Hunters can handle.  Pat Shand strikes again with this tale of a very angry vampire with one foot in the past and the other in the present.

Oh Mr. Shand, how you’ve delighted me again, but this time with vampires.  I see a great character in the works with Samira.  She’s got the looks, the sexiness, she doesn’t take crap from anyone and she can soliloquy with the best of them.  Pat’s writing has this way of evoking such realism that one can envision these characters as though they existed.  In my opinion, only a handful of writers are able to successfully pull this off.  The same goes for the backup story included with this issue.  Liesel Van Helsing feels like a real person and it’s that kind of writing that really gets me into a story.  The joke at the beginning of the issue was a nice touch as well.

Another great issue that’s come my way, but there was one minor problem.  Somewhere over the course of three panels, one of the character’s clothes just magically changed color.  I’m a stickler for detail, if you haven’t guessed by now, and it’s things like that, that take me out of the story a bit.  It doesn’t have anything to do with the main characters, but it does break up the flow.  Don’t get me wrong though, that didn’t deter me from finishing the issue, far from it, but I guess that’s bound to happen every once in awhile.

Vampires: The Eternal, a great companion to what’s looking to be something major over at Zenescope.  At this point, the whole idea seems kind of tired, but now we’re getting back to basics with the vampires you just love to hate.  I highly recommend this title to vampire enthusiasts and lovers of great writing.  It’ll be a bloody good time!  For more info on where to pick up this issue, visit the Zenescope website, or the Zenescope Facebook page.

Geek-o-Rama received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions are those of the individual reviewer.