Year One, Issue 3 Preview

I know it's been on newstands for about a month, but I thought I'd share a few pages from Dynamite's Dark Shadows:  Year One #3, mostly because I'm such a huge fan of the art (check out Guiu Vilanova's blog here!).  As I've said before, storywise I'm a fan, dialogue-wise ... not so much.  Reading the past three issues, it seems to me that someone handed writer Marc Andreyko Kathryn Leigh Scott's The Dark Shadows Companion and said, "Here, buddy, check out the episode guide," and he's been using those one sentence capsules to compress the entire 1795 flashback into six comic book issues.  "Victoria Winters arrives from the future."  "Barnabas is bitten by a bat."  "Barnabas strangles Angelique."  "Josette sees herself as a vampire in a vision and throws herself off Widow's Hill."  Not, mind you, that I think this is a bad thing.  I enjoyed the revisionist approach to the original series canon in House of Dark Shadows, the 1991 revival series, and the 2012 Burton/Depp film, and I'm enjoying it with Year One.  My only real gripe is with the presentation of Angelique.  Lara Parker, with the help of the original series writers and the day-to-day pacing of a soap opera, was able to create a believable, three-dimensional character who, despite her vicious and, yes, downright evil actions, was still a dynamic and frequently sympathetic person.  The Angelique of Year One shares the same problem with her counterpart in the revival series and the Burton/Depp film:  she's the stereotypical "woman scorned," a vengeful woman whom (male) writers insist using to embody that incredibly offensive "bitches be crazy" mentality that continues to permeate pop culture representations of women (see this year's Oz the Great and Powerful).  "Be careful where you stick your dick, gentlemen," this trope warns heterosexual male viewers, and, unfortunately, it remains embedded in this latest iteration of the DS mythos.

In an interesting twist, Vicki knows all about the curse, and seems to have transcended time in order to prevent it.  She sucks at espionage, apparently.  (I'm assuming that's Josette the ghost of Angelique is strangling, though it might also be Vicki.  Dammit, DS writers of every generation, dark-haired ingenues are not interchangeable!)

I'm not an expert in late 18th century fashion by any means, but I'm super curious about the fact that all the women in this miniseries wear bonnets.  I noticed them in the Night of Dark Shadows flashbacks as well, but that was set in 1810. 

Angelique, shot several times, returns as a ... zombie?  A witch-ghost-zombie maybe?  Not sure; since her revival, her hair floats and her eyes glow yellow.

I have to say how disturbing this moment is -- in a really good way.  Barnabas' original throttling of Angelique was gross enough (remember how her eyes did that creepy staring thing while blood dribbled out of her mouth?), but this version has that extra-icky sound effect:  "KRACK" -- thank you, onomatopoeia!  The protruding tongue is a nice touch too.

I'm very excited for issue #4 -- will Angelique return for further tormentings?  And, more importantly, will Nathan Forbes wear the same (ahem!) form-fitting tights as his television counterpart?