Illustrator: Salvador Espin
First published: 2016 (TPB)
Contains spoilers
The blurb: She is Shiklah-undisputed Queen of the Monster Metropolis below Manhattan! In the world that was, she married Deadpool, the Merc with the Mouth. But nothing on Battleworld is quite as it was. Now, she commands the Howling Commandos: Werewolf by Night! Frankenstein's Monster! The Living Mummy! Man-Thing! And Marcus the Centaur! What would her late husband think of that???
The review: Part of Marvel’s 2015 Secret War Event, this starts with a fight between Dracula and Deadpool, the former winning as he (against his promise) used his vampire powers and then took Deadpool’s body, put it in an acid filed chest – to prevent regeneration – and disposed of it. Deadpool does appear in this, therefore, but as a ghost and narrator.
Shiklah is a demonic entity and – in Marvel canon – married Deadpool but eventually divorced him and got together with Dracula. She devours lifeforce through a kiss. In this alternate version she is forced, after being widowed, to become Dracula’s fiancée. However, she intends to betray him and persuades him to let her take her brother’s ashes to rest, though her real quest is to find the pieces of the Sceptre of the Manticore. Dracula sends the Howling Commandos with her, but they intend to betray him too.
We also get a fleeting visitation of Blade (or an alternative version, thereof), who is a member of the Thor Corps.
The graphic is competently drawn but I wasn’t wowed by the art and is very short (in fact the trade paper back is padded with an old issue of Werewolf by Night and it still feels too short). It is a passable read but nothing special – 5 out of 10.
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