Broken Frontier

A war is brewing between the vampires and werewolves of Aracana’s latest offering. But should you care? For now I’d say no. Newcomer Frank Laperch’s Eve, the Vampire Diva, is a whiny, washed up pop star from the 80s, or possibly the 90s—the comic never makes it clear—who spends her time thinning the werewolf herd by night. There’s also mention of a looming werewolf cure and a shadowy council seeking Eve’s help in the ensuing struggle. And an ex-boyfriend who has possibly returned from the dead or transformed into a werewolf.

Yawn.

So far everything here is derivative of the Underworld series or even the Bloodrayne video games. The only story beat that deviates from the by the book approach taken here is Eve’s status as a pop star. These are the best scenes in this opening issue but even these are cliché ridden right down to the smarmy talent agent and bookish assistant. The plot is also fairly predictable. If you don’t figure out that something’s up with a certain council member’s cat then you need to read your comics a little more closely.

However, all of this pales in comparison to the art. Ash Jackson needs some work on his pencils. Most of his faces are unrecognizable as human beings. Their jaws contort in positions that are so over the top they’re downright laughable. Some of the page layouts are pretty inventive here but the artwork itself needs a lot of polishing. Jackson could end up as a budding talent, as his work does have a rough Mark Bagley quality to it. He just needs more experience.

Arcana has slated Eve to appear in three subsequent issues but Laperch introduces so many plot points here that it seems unlikely we’ll have a very satisfying conclusion. This may be a good approach to garner fan interest and possibly parlay that into an ongoing but it’s certainly not conducive to writing a solid, standalone miniseries.