Dynamite Entertainment announces a new chapter in Christopher Priest’s Vampirella series, set to launch in March. The series, a perfect entry point for new readers, reunites Priest with artist and original run collaborator Ergün Gündüz.
The new story, “The Long Night”, offers fans dual narratives: one follows the Daughter of Drakulon in the present as she struggles with intense postpartum depression while being reunited with her once-stolen infant son. The other explores a vison of a potential dystopian, cyberpunk future shaped by a vengeful Vampi’s nuclear apocalypse.
Attentive readers might remember The Long Night being referenced in earlier issues of Priest’s run as a prophetic nightmare foretold by Vampirella and other characters. Described as a vampire Ragnarök, this apocalyptic event is said to be triggered by a child of Lilith. When the demon Belial mentioned it following Draculina’s birth, it was assumed to predict the fate of Vampi’s dark-haired, often villainous sister—rather than Vampirella herself. Priest originally considered naming this storyline Season of the Witch, alluding to the antiheroine’s descent into darkness and eventual transformation into the Witch of Ashthorne.
The story begins in March with Vampirella #1, which continues with legacy numbering as issue #676 on the way to #700. In this issue, a mysterious man named Cicero enters Vampirella’s life, claiming to be her son from the future. As an immortal vampiress, the Daughter of Drakulon has lived far beyond her 50-plus years of publication since 1969, maintaining her youthful appearance. This same longevity applies to her son, who has returned from the time of her 100th anniversary.
Priest mentions that he believes the most compelling challenges for a protagonist are those they can’t simply overcome with force. That in today’s comics, there’s often too much reliance on violence to resolve conflicts, which can make the story feel repetitive and uninteresting.
Good writing involves conflict but conflict isn’t always about violence. You put your character in a headlock, in a no-win scenario, ideally in a mess of their own making, and then follow them as they resolve that conflict through their strength of character. Vampirella’s present situation, her being suddenly confounded by the unimaginable impact of motherhood, is the direct cause and effect of the future story and the reason her son, an adult many decades in the future, has returned to warn her
Read details from the publisher:
Fans are invited to hop into this new series and celebrate this peek into Vampirella’s deep psyche as well as a dark future. The critically acclaimed team of Priest and Gündüz are back once more, joined with head-turning covers from the likes of Lucio Parrillo, Greg Land, Elias Chatzoudis, Jay Anacleto, and cosplayer Rachel Hollon. Rising superstar Mark Spears, beloved for his Monsters series, also contributes covers.
Ahead of its release check out a preview of their amazing covers!
Vampirella #1 is listed in Diamond Comic Distributors’ January 2025 Previews catalog, the leading source for comic book specialty market merchandise, and is set for release in March 2025. If you do not want to miss out make sure to go to your local comic book shop and pre order your copy!
Check out more of our previews here!
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