I was hoping the comics would touch upon something like this eventually. If we all remember back to Bloodrayne’s first video game, we will remember that the first section of the game included a character named Mynce (yes, I know she showed up towards the end as well). However, we get the distinct impression that Mynce is related to Rayne in the capacity of a trainer. Well with “Tibetan Heights” we return to the past sixty-five years ago on one of their training missions.
Bloodrayne has returned to the one-shot format, which is sort of disappointing because I loved the three issue series so much. This isn’t so bad though because Troy Wall is writing the story once again, so I know my expectations will be, at the very least, met in this regard. Actually I think “Tibetan Heights” exceeded them! Anyway, as I mentioned this is an earlier training mission with Mynce and it actually takes place in Mynce’s homeland of Tibet. (As if you couldn’t guess by the title.) Although the martial arts teacher and student relationship mixed with Buddhist philosophy may seem like a cliché plot element, but I kind of like it. Maybe not all the time, but I don’t read a lot of things that involve Eastern philosophy much, so it doesn’t feel so overused to me. Beyond this, the basic plot is that a vampire cult has infiltrated the ranks of the Dalai Lama. It’s up to Rayne and Mynce to vanquish this threat! It is a very basic reason to generate the action sequences that we expect to see in a Bloodrayne comic. The philosophical and character development of Mynce is the other strong(er) story aspect for this comic. Rayne kind of has a background feel and the story focuses more on Mynce and her beliefs, which is fine. I love Rayne, but there are other people in her world that are worth getting to know from time to time as well. Not to mention this gives us a little more background on how close of a friendship Mynce and Rayne had over the years until we see the conclusion of that in the first video game. Personally, I hope to see more background stories involving Rayne and Mynce even if they are just one-shots.
They also decided to commission a new artist named Chad Hardin to take over the artistic element of this comic. After reading this I’m not sure quite what to feel. My first reaction on seeing the covers is that he’s an amazing artist! I was very excited to read this comic to see what he could do inside the issue as well as on the outside. Strangely, I have to say the art in this is a little inconsistent. The first few pages are great, even stunning in some regards. However, whenever action is taking place it feels like the art gets a little less realistic. Like peoples portions end up getting out of whack. Maybe it’s supposed to reflect fast movement and blur of motion? I’m not sure, and if it is, it’s a very unusual way to show that to the readers (see top of page 3). Other than the action parts the art is very realistic and very awesome! That is until I get to page 9. All of a sudden things take a turn into a cartoonier aspect. Which is very bizarre during deep conversations about philosophy and the hierarchical structure of Tibet’s ruling cast. However, it eventually switches back to the much more realistic and well done art. Robinson may not have been as good of a realistic artist as Hardin, but at least Robinson was very consistent in his art. I’m not saying an artist has to draw the same way in every comic, but they should in a single issue. At the very least to keep the same mood and atmosphere. It just throws off the flow when it jumps around. This is sort of a disappointment to me because it’s obvious Hardin can put out some high quality material, I mean just look at these covers! All three shown above are by him!
Overall this is a very successful issue. It’s going to lose some points for inconsistent art, but the story is very strong once again. As long as it has strong writing I will continue to come back for my dose of Bloodrayne. This kind of comic may never hit the five star mark (that’s very hard to do in my book these days), but if they can keep a consistent high three or four star rating it’s worth reading in my book! I can’t wait to read the next story they have in store for us now!
Overall Rating: 4.0/5.0