Review – Swords of Sorrow: Vampirella & Jennifer Blood #4

Swords of Sorrow: Vampirella & Jennifer Blood #4 (of 4) – Dynamite Comics
Written by Nancy Collins
Art by Dave Acosta
Colors by Valentina Pinto
Letters by Erica Schultz
Cover by Billy Tan

The tie-ins to the big Swords of Sorrow arc from Dynamite are starting to wrap up.  Vampirella once again teams up, albeit reluctantly, with Jennifer Blood keep their swords from Chastity and the Prince.  It seems the attempt to pit them against each other didn’t work out so well.  Problem is, what should have felt like an epic final battle, seemed to fall a bit short.

Chastity just was not a convincing villain to me, and at no point did I feel our two heroes were ever in any real danger.  There was a point where Jennifer Blood runs out of bullets, which I did feel was a nice way to add some tension.  Still, even in a back and forth battle with Vampirella and Chastity, at no point did I feel like things weren’t going to work out.  You still want some sense of peril or the sense that this may turn things in the bigger arc.  Even the end of the issue, at the climax of the showdown, it didn’t have that wow factor.

Nancy Collins does to a great job with Jennifer Blood, who seemed to steal the show in this final issue.  I found myself more interested in her pages, which is ironic, because Collins has done a masterful job in writing Vampirella solo for years.  The art by Dave Acosta is very consistent, and the action sequences played out well.  If this were anything but a conclusion, I would have enjoyed this issue much more.  If this were, say, a halfway point in the arc, I would give this issue high praise.  As a conclusion, this issue falls a little flat for me.  It does assist the main arc, which serves the purpose of a tie-in, but not enough to race out and grab this off the shelf.

Rating: DROP/SKIP