Dracula: The Company of Monsters #11 – Review
Finally after all the talking, this issue brings the action
with some great artwork, but a little too much seems to be going on at one
time. There have been numerous
characters simply added for fodder with some of the regulars having off
personalities, but the story is still pretty solid.
Evan has revealed his betrayal of Dracula and the grand
battle between Conrad and Dracula finally begins physically with a huge battle
ensuing between Dracula, Conrad, Evan, Marta and her band of vampire slayers
and some vampires from the old country with great power.
Dracula: The Company of Monsters #11 delivers what fans want
even though it has numerous flaws. After so much exposition it’s surprising that the many characters
that creator Kurt Busiek and writer Daryl Gregory add to this are not only skipped
over almost completely, but when they are mentioned there is the perfect chance
to give the reader a short backstory about them. They could become more frightening if it is explained why
they are significant to this battle. Since I have not read the entire series they could have been explained before
and I maybe missed it, but it’s always nice to have a refresher for readers,
either in the actual comic or a quick summary in the beginning.
The scene between Evan and Marta was the most entertaining
part of the issue. The only moment
in the entire series I enjoyed was of Marta, who was Evan’s love interest, despite
how sudden and uncharacteristic the relationship seemed. When Marta meets Evan’s ex-fiancée, a
vampire, the two go off on each other and provides some comic relief to the
issue that gave us a break from the action. The action is good, but so much is happening at one time
between so many different characters that the fighting scenes seemed cluttered
and disorganized. Artistically
there are other problems that need to be addressed.
Being in the middle of an open field around a deserted
forest, it is not expected that Scott Godlewski would put much artistic detail
into the settings, but instead he focuses his efforts into the characters and violence they
take or cause. The violence is
something Godlewski has always done well. He has almost full-paged panels of violence that are drawn well and
don’t take up a lot of space so we can get more content. However some of that content has
numerous poor qualities. None of
the characters look very threatening and instead have faces that make them seem
cartoonish. Dracula’s eyes on
several panels have reduced him from a powerful being with an actual threat to
diminishing him into a cartoony vampire I would laugh at before screaming at. The colors from Stephen Downer only
help the artwork a little, creating some mist in some of the scenes that give
those moments an eerie feel that the rest of the issue could have used.
This issue does deliver what it promised: some decent action
panels. But it fails to deliver it
at a high enough level to make it as great as it could have been. Everything feels clustered and so many
characters are added and breezed over that it makes me wonder where all the
exposition from the previous issues went. It is frustrating since the creators have talent and are trying to make
something great, and while it’s nice to see some action, let’s hope the next
issue will have a powerful conclusion that can make up for this mostly bland
comic.
Overall
Score – 5.2/10
*It's
a comic, it has colors, art and pages; it's not good but it's not really bad – about
85% of books out there fall into this range.*
To see the ups and downs of
Dracula: Company of Monsters
check out our reviews of the series below.
Dracula:
The Company of Monsters #1
Dracula:
The Company of Monsters #7
Dracula:
The Company of Monsters #8
Dracula:
The Company of Monsters #9
Dracula:
The Company of Monsters #10
