Writer: Fred Van Lente
Artist: Marco Finnegan
Colorist: Ellie Wright
Letterer: Jeff Eckleberry
Cover Artist: EJ Su, Godtail, David Cousens & Will
Robson
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Price: $4.99
Release Date: November 5, 2025
Jennifer races through the ruins. When she reaches a fence
of sharpened wooden poles, she utters a desperate cry. Warriors spring into
action. The women attack the males transformed into shambling corpses with a
taste for Human flesh. They rescue Jennifer and bring her inside. What will the
newcomer find in this enclave of healthy Humans? And what of the inhabitant who
isn’t Human? Let’s grab our weapons, leap into Die!Namite Blood Red #1, and
see!
Story
When the X virus struck, it attacked males, cutting short Humanity’s
future. As in Y: The Last Man, healthy males are in short supply. Women must
stick together to defend themselves and protect the few males who can ensure
Humanity's survival. But preserving these remnants of civilization demands
ruthlessness wielded by an iron hand.
In Die!Namite: Blood Red #1, Vampirella’s voice guides us through
this apocalyptic tale of Deadmen hunting, swarming, and hungering for their
next meal. Inside the enclave, Vampirella hides a dark secret. She was an
ambassador for her planet. Now, she is a refugee, forced to take on detective
work to survive.
Fred Van Lente’s story puts Vampirella on the back foot. She
needs the safety of Purgatori’s enclave to survive. Yet she wants to protect someone
from her ruler’s harsh justice. So Vampirella plays things cool. She asserts
her importance by pursuing investigations vital to the enclave’s future. Vampirella
knows that if she displeases them, her hosts could throw her outside to become
the Deadmen’s next meal. Or worse, she could lose her last link to her
homeworld in Die!Namite: Blood Red #1.
Art
Dark figures stumble down a broken road between tilted
telephone poles. Crumbling tower blocks rise in the distance, their exposed
infrastructure a reminder of the collapse of civilization. The Deadmen stumble
or crawl after a woman fleeing in jeans and a string top. A small purse holds
her few possessions. When she reaches the gates, a diesel truck with a grapple
bucket on the front roars into view. Warriors cling to each door, while a third
fires the roof-mounted machine gun.
While Marco Finnegan reveals the essentials of this brutal
world, Ellie Wright lavishes bright colors on the silhouettes and thick inks in
Die!Namite: Blood Red #1. The colors glow as the women radiate vitality in this
dying world. The face of their benefactor emerges from a smudged, dirty
billboard rising above the barbed wire barriers. Vampirella’s cosmic route back
to civilization juxtaposes with a glowing gladiatorial arena.
Jeff Eckleberry fills these spectral glimpses of the
wasteland with black uppercase letters in white dialogue balloons and narrative
boxes. Words grow bold for intonation. They swell and threaten to burst
balloons when danger threatens. Sound effects fill the hazy air and silhouetted
backgrounds in this Mad Max zombie apocalypse. Yet Vampirella strides through it
all in her long red coat and dark boots, seemingly impervious to the dangers
surrounding her, in this futuristic sci-fi noir. Thanks to Dynamite Entertainment
for providing a review copy.
Final Thoughts
In a bleak future, an alien who can never return home helps
her foreign hosts eek out each new day of existence, so that someday, somehow,
a brighter future can dawn in Die!Namite: Blood Red #1.
Rating 8/10
For more cover art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
