With renewed hopes I eagerly opened “Seeds of Sin”. On this issue they have a new writer, Christina Z who wrote for Witchblade, so I was expecting a bit more from this story. Unfortunately they changed artists, so the art quality isn’t nearly on the same caliber as “Skies Afire”. I really do wish Molenaar had continued with this project it would be great to see him drawing in this capacity again. Unfortunately that’s not the case and his touch of incredible realism is no longer present. Kody’s artwork is fairly decent, but I feel it is an average work for the comic collecting public. It definitely makes me curious about the future of Bloodrayne if they’re going to be changing artists often.
Now when I saw in the back of “Skies Afire” they advertised a new writer, I was kind of excited. Unfortunately I was a little premature in my excitement. I don’t quite know where these writers are getting their ideas, but this opens pretty much the exact same way as “Skies Afire”. I’m sorry, but this is just foolish writing. I could say it was okay for the opening comic book, but to use the same exact technique on the second… it just seems sloppy. There are no relations at all between the two issues it seems. I don’t mind the one-shot comics much, but if you look at stories within the Aliens universe, for example, the one-shot story is much stronger. It has a coherent beginning and end as well as enough character development to create intrigue. Bloodrayne has none of this!
“Seeds of Sin” opens with Rayne killing a giant monster, just like you saw in “Skies Afire”. I think the absolutely worst part about this is the place created where this first page is taking place is more interesting than the rest of the story. I wanted to read more about her mission into the science laboratory. Not to mention the dialogue between Rayne and the monster makes little to no sense because the reader has no real context with which to relate the comments. You can formulate something in your head, but that sort of defeats the purpose. One thing that’s starting to get kind of annoying is that they’re treating Rayne as a two dimensional personality. Brimstone comes along and gives her missions, and then she goes on them. She’s a thinking and feeling being with goals whether we want to ignore that fact or not. You can easily ignore this in a video game, but it’s much harder to do so in reading material. They try to create some “love interest” in this issue, but it utterly fails because things happen too fast. The two vampires don’t know each other, yet they’re passionate for each others company and make comments that aren’t sensible given the situation. In fact they talk to each other like they know each other quite well, but it’s clear they just met. Again, this kind of a story needs to develop over multiple issues, not just one. Or how about just dropping the opening battle scene since it’s not necessary anyway?
Basically Rayne is sent on a mission to hunt down some Greek vampires hidden away on a secluded island. In fact they’re cursed to be there until the prince can father a son. It’s never really fully explained why Brimstone wants them killed other than the fact that they’re vampires. While that may be the premise of the concept of Brimstone, it just seems like their mission criteria should have more background on this stuff. We get more than that in the video games even! If there was a woman that was pregnant with the leader’s child then I could understand some need to act fast, but to send in such an elite assassin as Rayne seems kind of weird, since it doesn’t seem like they need to rush or anything. Aren’t there bigger problems in the world? I don’t know it just feels like there should be more to the Bloodrayne story line than going on missions, successfully executing them, and then going home. Where is home for her anyway? At least the movie touched on this concept a little bit. The game doesn’t and the comic doesn’t either. That might be what the game is generally about, but the comics should give us more depth to the universe she’s in.
The only time I felt like the story might actually be able to go somewhere is when a character mentions that Brimstone is not what it appears. You find out a little bit about them in this issue, but there isn’t a lot to go on. The mystery and intrigue of Brimstone seems more interesting than Rayne going on missions at this point. However, at the end it felt like Rayne acted somewhat out of character when they were performing a certain ritual. Rayne doesn’t seem like the type of girl that just walks away when confronted with something amiss, she’s a strong person that would push them for answers! Maybe some other day…
Anyway, overall the early inception of Bloodrayne is still lacking. The comics are action packed as always, but life isn’t just about killing and going on missions. These are all very exciting things, but the writers have a golden opportunity to bring the world of the game even deeper! They should be taking this opportunity and really running with it rather than trying to mimic a quick game mission as much as possible. I’m going to keep trying. Unlike the movies the comics have much more potential and I will continue to hold out hope!
This issue also comes with a myriad of various covers, which I was just too late to purchase. Unfortunately the one posted at the top is the only one I was able to get. “Skies Afire” was the stronger issue in my opinion simply on the basis that the art was much stronger. Christina Z could have taken this much deeper, but I think she played into a few cliché vampire concepts that have been done too many times before.
Overall Rating: 2.5/5