Review: Victorian Undead II: Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula!

How did I get it: The library.

Why did I read it: I really enjoyed the first Victorian Undead graphic novel so I had to read the sequel.

How I would rate it: 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Summary:

A year after the defeat of Professor Moriarty’s horde and the fire-bombing of London, restoration is well under way. Yet, from across the sea, ancient eyes cast their hungry gaze upon the still vulnerable capital… Dracula is coming.

Review: This wasn’t what I was hoping for particularly in terms of its focus. Instead of working on delivering solely on the cool title and premise, the first section of the graphic novel actually deals with Dr. Jekyll. Yes, it was interesting and clever, but it was all kinds of unnessecary because ultimately having a completely separate storyline resulted in much less page time when it came to developing the one for Dracula. This just seems completely baffling to me since I imagine anyone picking up this book is picking it up to see Sherlock Holmes take out Dracula. I also feel like Sherlock’s role was a bit unclear and Watson got relegated to the background most of the time as more and more minor characters got involved.

Don’t get me wrong. When Dracula did finally show up, it was pretty cool and creepy. I liked the notion that he was trying to kill people off with a strain of the bubonic plague while trying to manipulate the Queen by suggesting that he can remove impurities from the royal bloodline. Ian Edginton’s script was good and Davide Fabbri’s vibrant artwork was great. Although I think less Bram Stoker characters ought to have shown up, I liked some of the little details such as Gabriel Utterson was included in the section about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I also loved both Holmes’ and Dracula’s character designs. Yet ultimately I just didn’t want to read multiple rehashings of various works of classical fiction, and I really found myself missing the strange uniqueness of Moriarty and his zombie army.

In conclusion, a cool graphic novel, but if you really enjoyed the first one you might be disappointed.

Related Reviews:

Victorian Undead: Sherlock Holmes vs Zombies! by Ian Edginton

About April

I'm a librarian, reader, and writer whose main goal in life is to be able to swim in books the way Scrooge McDuck swims in money. Although my reading choices will always be wildly eclectic and I never plan on leaving any genre unexplored, my favorite reads tend to be Fantasy, Young Adult, Science Fiction, Gay Romance, or Historical Fiction. You can e-mail me at inspector[dot]librarian[at]gmail[dot]com.

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