Victorian Undead II (2011) #5

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Hmm… is Edginton subtly suggesting the next Victorian Undead series will feature Frankenstein’s Monster? I hope so.

Again, there are some needlessly weak pages, but this time I can’t blame it on anyone but Fabbri. Maybe he was rushed. It’s a shame it’s during the big finale with Dracula and Holmes.

Edginton comes up with a good plot for the conclusion—even a great reveal—but his ending is a little too pat. I suppose some of it comes from being too much a mix of Holmes and Dracula and not enough of either. Watson’s barely a character this series and Edginton, except in the first issue, hasn’t done much to make it feel like another Holmes case.

It’s still a good series, however. Even with the various art problems throughout.

I was hoping Dracula would be more interesting.

Oh, yeah; Edginton does leave his other sequel setup intact too.

Victorian Undead II (2011) #4

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Okay, it’s not Fabbri doing the terrible pages, it’s Guevara on his own. And they are terrible. He can’t maintain the shape of a human head. There are four or five of his pages this issue and it’s so bad, I wanted to put the comic down and stop reading it.

Otherwise, again, good issue. Edginton introduces something he might keep around later—he really ought to do a straight adaptation of Dracula, revising as he sees fit, because he comes up with some great developments here and they don’t necessarily need to be bound to the Victorian Undead universe. This issue, once more, has me hoping DC doesn’t let the property languish with Wildstorm gone.

Edginton has a good pace this issue, getting through a lot of events (even getting in Holmes references) to set up the cliffhanger. It’s a soft cliffhanger, sort of unnecessary, but it does work.

Victorian Undead II (2011) #3

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As ineffectual as I find Fabbri’s Saturday morning cartoon style, at least he usually works at it. This issue brings in Mario Guevara to ink him and there are some incredible mishaps. One section appears to either be without inks (in which case, it’s clear Fabbri does most of his work while inking) and it makes that scene particularly unpleasant to read. I sat wondering if Tom Mandrake had done it as a guest and then jokingly did terrible work. No, no, he did not.

Reading this issue—Holmes, Watson and the Van Helsing get together and talk about the Dracula events up until now—it suggests Edginton never read Bram Stoker’s Dracula, just saw Bram Stoker’s Dracula. He borrows film creations part and parcel.

It’s not bad, just interesting. He adds some logic to the Dracula story, which is utterly missing in Stoker’s original.

Problems aside, a decent issue.

Victorian Undead II (2011) #2

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Edginton moves the story along a lot faster than I was expecting. I imagine it’s to bring the Dracula supporting cast into it sooner; the last half of the issue is Holmes and Watson teaming up with Professor Van Helsing and company. If I thought Fabbri’s Sherlock Holmes was funny, his Van Helsing is absolutely hilarious. Maybe Wildstorm was telling him to make them look like silly movie actors in case the series gets optioned.

Fabbri also rips off the battle armor—the very distinguishable battle armor—from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, so he’s clearly seen movies. He’s just ignoring the ones with Sherlock Holmes.

The first half fires a bunch of flares. There’s some boring exposition, then Dracula and his minions and neither scene is particularly good. The Dracula one is requisite and a little better. The stuff with Holmes and the gypsies is weak.

The second half recovers though.

Victorian Undead II (2011) #1

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Let’s see… Edginton doesn’t just bring in Dracula, he also brings in zombie-hunting gypsies, a conspiracy involving the British throne involving vampires (which changes up the series being a straight Dracula adaptation) and London rebuilding. The interesting part of London rebuilding is how it was a facet of Scarlet Traces too. While the first Victorian Undead series had its problems, he’s been able to build on its resolution quite well. Hopefully the franchise survives DC scuttling Wildstorm.

Unsurprisingly, I have issues with Davide Fabbri’s artwork. Tom Mandrake’s back for a page and it’s another instance of where he should have been the artist, not a guest star. Fabbri takes his time on Victorian London, getting in some great details, but it still looks insipidly commercial overall. The choice continues to bewilder.

Edginton takes his time, splitting between foreboding and Holmes and Watson investigating. He definitely piques the reader’s curiosity.