The things that go bump in the night fear only one thing, survivors. They grow in strength and conviction and now use their expertise to vanquish those very creatures with whips, magic, knives, and garlic?!
When the Belpaese siblings are tasked with clearing out monsters, Imelda Belpaese stumbles upon The Trickster. An ancient evil so horrific it leaves only destruction in its wake, and now it looks to destroy one thing, Imelda’s mind. The Trickster follows Imelda, wreaking havoc all around her but is invisible to everyone else. And with the rivalrous Ladonna family applying pressure and the Belpaese siblings’ constant quarrels, the Trickster may just be able to destroy everything precious to Imelda.
Vampire Survivors #1 brings the video game to the comic page for a debut that has some interesting aspects but overall doesn’t deliver much new or exciting. I’ve never played the video game and know nothing about it, but I wanted to see what the comic was about and see what it might do that could be new or different. Beyond the relationship between characters, this is any off the rails fantasy adventure. It’s DnD focused on the action and not much of the story.
Written by David Hazan, the comic follows three monster hunter siblings who are focused on getting rid of vampires. One seems to be stalked by some evil only she can see but most of the issue is the trio, as well as another pair of monster hunters, battling strange forces while yelling at each other. Vampire Survivors #1 stumbles as it gives readers little to connect to. It’s an off the rails adventure without character we can cheer for or care about. The end result is a debut issue whose draw is the action and not the story… like so many video games.
The art by Jimmy Kucaj with color by Jão Canola is good. There’s a certain energy about it and it has a style that feels like other recent comic adaptations, it’s bright and very exaggerated. But it also feels like it plays things rather safe. Like the story itself, it doesn’t embrace its video game routes and the visuals are rather a run of the mill fantasy adventure with little unique personality to stand out.
Vampire Survivors #1 isn’t a bad debut but it also isn’t exciting. It doesn’t give us anything particular new or interesting. It’s best quality is the bickering between its characters as siblings. But, that too feels rather generic after a while. This is one for the diehards of the property, there’s fare too many similar stories that are far better to check out.
Story: David Hazan Art: Jimmy Kucaj Color: Jão Canola
Story: 6.5 Art: 7.0 Overall: 6.5 Recommendation: Pass
Titan Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
Purchase: Zeus Comics – Kindle
