Requiem, Le Chevalier Vampire Volumes 1 - 4 (Comic Book) movie review

Misc : Ecrit par / Written by : Pat Mills
Dessiné par / Drawn by : Olivier Ledroit
Traduction par Jacques Collin
Lettrage par / Letters by : Anne Drano
Pour le scénario : 4 / 5
Pour les illustrations : 4.5 / 5

Rating : 8.5 / 10

SYNOPSIS

After his death on the Russian front during WW2, Heinrich thought he would find peace of mind. Instead of that, he finds himself on Resurrection, a nightmarish planet where time goes back. He becomes Requiem, Vampire Knight, and begins to look for his lost love, Rebecca. Meanwhile, he finds himself into a cosmic conflict between strange gods and in which he may be the key...

REVIEW

Here's a comic book dedicated to vampires far from the “gothic” image that the title and summary of the story can inspire!

First of all, let's talk about the drawings... Ah! These drawings!!! What can I say about them except that they're superb?! Its universe is cold, biomechanical with dark grey tints, which is reinforced by the fact that an eternal night seems to reign on Necropolis, the most important vampire city. The general aspect of this city equals the wonderful illustrations by H.R. Giger but mixing parts of gothic architecture. The insides are quite the same but coloured mainly with red and green without being too loud.

The vampire characters seem to create a unity, first, because they're all dressed in the same style with black and red armours and also because of their black and white make-up. However, in spite of their point in common, each character is easy to recognize each one having a different general aspect. This blood drinking population is morally decadent which is shown by the way they feed and by their “games”. Moreover, the complex political context, which is shown from volume 3, in which many conspiracies are made against their chief, Dracula, reinforce this feeling of decadence in the mentalities.

The enemies of the vampires are numerous all the story long (so far...). In addition to the conspiracies for power, the vampires have to fight against zombies, pirate ghouls, werewolves, and dragons... The aspect of these creatures is also splendid with beauty, very much inspired as, even within the same “race”, each creature doesn't look like another. Well done Mr Ledroit! You succeeded in creating an imaginary world but which seems likely! What a talent!

Let's talk about the story now! In spite that, in the beginning, it seems a bit complex due to the fact that the rules are inverted with the ones of our world (as time goes back, the characters become younger and younger, evil is good and good is evil ...), the universe created by Pat Mills is more and more fascinating all the reading long. The characters have a complex mind, the situations are also, the story is original for a vampire tale, and all that keeping it easy to comprehension...Moreover, Mills succeeded in including very famous characters very intelligently. We can see Dracula, Elisabeth Bathory or Aleister Crowley without being disturbed by it whatsoever!

The battles and politics aren't the only aspects of this story. The basis of the scenario is on a love story between a German soldier and a young Jewish woman that continues after their death. However, in spite of the fact that it could seem strange to horror fans, it's not like the usual sloppy love stories like you can read in books, in spite of some clichés like, for example, in the first part, when wee see Rebecca dying while kissing a picture of Heinrich!

To sum up, a good horror comic book which succeeds in mixing several different themes and give them a wonderful and bloody image! One of the “bests” now!

The only bad thing about them is that they're a bit too short and that the different parts are released very irregularly.
Published on 2004-09-13

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