Vampires are real and stalking the streets of London.

Hunted close to extinction and no longer content to swell their ranks by the slow process of random biting, the vampires have developed a gaseous "virus" that can be released to infect mortals and transform them into a half-dead half-breed who, while more mindless than your average vamps, will spread the infection further through their attacks.

Romany Petrovna is a young ballerina who appears to be on the wrong subway at the wrong time. Strangely, however, her transformation is different from the rest, and she retains her mental acuity and a great deal of her normal personality -- albeit a bit more aggressive than usual. She's captured and recruited by the PASA (Bureau of Paranormal and Supernatural Affairs) as both a guinea pig in their studies and a weapon in their attacks. Along for the ride are a one-armed vamp survivor, a small troop of bat-winged soldiers and a general who had his entire body amputated and remains as the, um, head of operations.

There's a lot of potential here for grand storytelling in a modern horror style. Unfortunately, Half Dead feels rushed, as if the writers had a 250-page story and were told to squeeze it into a 128-page book. We meet Romany and, boom, she's been infected. Boom, she's captured and has adapted to her new situation. Boom, she's trained and ready to go into lethal combat. Boom. Boom. Boom. Unfortunately, nowhere along the way does she pause long enough for us to get any sense of who she is, so the character never leaves the page to become three-dimensional.

Still, there's plenty here to warrant a second look, if Half Dead continues further. I hope Marvel is willing to give it the chance to develop and grow.

by Tom Knapp
Rambles.NET
21 April 2007