Is it an homage, parody or satire? Or just the inability to agree on licensing rights? Either way Dynamite Comics’ new one-shot release Vampirella vs. Fluffy the Vampire Killer is good fun. How would Vampirella interact with the cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? This book answers that question with lots of shots back and forth between the two franchises, despite the fact that this really isn’t Buffy, its Fluffy. Yeah, right.
The sign of good parody is getting the mood, characters, and for Buffy, Joss Whedon’s pop-culture-filled snappy dialogue just right. Writer Mark Rahner knows his Buffy-isms. Although I am not an expert in Vampirella, I expect he has her figured out, too. The Buffy and her Scooby Gang found in the pages of various Dark Horse titles would be very familiar with the world Rahner has re-created here. Artist Cezar Razek creates a fun group of teens from “Shiny Hill High School” (not Sunnydale), where we meet Fluffy, Sallow, Carmilla, Xtanley, boyfriend Cherub, and Fluffy’s “minder” Miles. Could this be just another vampire slayer? No, the closeness of these characters to the Buffyverse almost takes this out of the parody realm and into Rahner and Razek’s portfolio submission to Dark Horse to try to work on the Buffy series.
Like a good episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, we have a guest character of the week, a Van Halen “Hot for Teacher” video-eligible new teacher named Ms. Ella Normandy, who Fluffy is unimpressed with when she finds she is really do-gooder Vampirella. Fluffy and Vampirella exchange pretty funny barbs. But they band together against the bigger threat–a murderous gang of “Puritans” they end up calling the “impuritans”.
Can Sallow withstand the mean comments from Carmilla? Will the school’s “abstinence week” be just another week for Xtanley? Will Vampirella ever get Fluffy to shut up? Does Vampirella really shop at the same store as Pamela Anderson?
Ultimately it doesn’t matter. It’s all about Fluffy killing vampires in the cemetery and then some good foot-to-gut fight scenes between Fluffy and Vampirella. You’ll probably walk away from this one asking “when are we going to see this turn into an ongoing series?”
C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com
