Vampirella: The Dark Powers is a comic series from Dynamite Comics. It is written by Dan Abnett of Guardians of the Galaxy fame with art by Paul Davidson, colors by Andrew Dalhouse, and letters by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. The series is a crossover between Vampirella and Project Superpowers. The first issue was released on December 9th, 2020.
The series deals with Vampirella being recruited by the Pan-Plural Project, an interdimensional superhero organization tasked with protecting The Multiverse. However, Vampirella is not much of a team player and certainly is no traditional superhero. As a result, she ends up clashing with her new team.
This story takes place at a similar but somewhat earlier point in time as the Red Sonja: The Super Powers series. Sequel series then followed in Vampirella versus Red Sonja from 2022-23, and Vampirella versus The Superpowers in 2023 (a number of entries here may be for the above series).
Vampirella: The Dark Powers provides examples of:
- 10-Minute Retirement: After bungling her first mission, Vampirella sees herself as a liability and suggests resigning from the Project. Her resignation is refused and they decide to put her on probation with the Flame being selected to keep an eye on her.
- And Then What?: In Issue #3, Vampirella asks Professor Suppressor what his plans are for the world after he conquers it. Suppressor doesn't have an answer.
- Breather Episode: After the dark supernatural forces arc spanning several miniseries and resulting in members getting killed and Vampi losing her immortality, the Vampirella versus The Superpowers is an easy mission for Vampirella and her sidekick Dyna-Might that only requires some light undercover work and mostly easy fights.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Black Terror comes from an Earth where it is still the 1940s. As a result, the 1971 liberated world of Vampirella's Earth is rather shocking to him, especially when it comes to women's rights.
- Evil Gloating: While spying on the Flame, Flame Girl and Vampirella, Professor Suppressor starts bragging about how he is finally going to defeat the Flame this time only to be interrupted by one of his minions. He does not appreciate it.
- Fantastic Racism: Vampirella mentions having dealt with prejudice due to being a vampire.
- The Friend No One Likes: Initially only Green Llama likes Vampirella, who's standard method of fighting evil is clawing the enemy to death or shooting them.
- Good Feels Good: In issue #4, Vampirella finds that she enjoys helping people even though she never really saw herself as a hero.
- Good Is Not Nice: By the time she encountered Brady Moyers, Vampirella has accepted the Project's edict of "No Killing". Against a metahuman who's about to blast open the San Andreas fault as a Vietnam War protest, Vampirella claws him in the throat. She does try to staunch his bleeding and call for medical aid, so she wasn't attempting to kill him.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: After witnessing the supernatural horrors happening to the Black Terror's Earth, Professor Supermind shuts down mentally and Red Sonja says that it's a common occurrence whenever wise men, who's only source of learning are books, encounter the supernatural.
- Horrifying Hero: Vampirella's claws, fangs and wings make her look just as terrifying to civilians as the biotech monster she is fighting in issue #2. She vocally expresses her frustration with their ingratitude.
- Improperly Paranoid: Issue #4 ends with Black Terror accusing Vampirella of aiding in a plot to destroy his Earth.
- I Work Alone: A major source of conflict between Vampirella and the Project is that Vampi isn't used to working on a team.
- Lame Pun Reaction: Vampirella makes some weak puns about the fire-themed heroes fighting underwater villains, much to the Flame's annoyance.Vampirella: Plus [Professor Suppressor's] Queen Whatever probably has a lot of - I'm just guessing - a lot of water? Which could kinda... dampen the abilities of heroes with flame powers.The Flame: Is that some kind of joke?Vampirella: No I just don't want to see you at all... put out.
- Magic Must Defeat Magic: Unlike the first iteration of Project Super Powers (the one with Mighty Samson) who were entirely mystic heroes due to decades-long entrapment in Pandora's Box, these guys are all science heroes, including Green Llama. This makes the Project incapable of fighting evil supernatural forces effectively. The follow-up series Vampirella vs Red Sonja and Red Sonja: The Super Powers has the team get curbstomped by a Hyborian Age wizard and later an Eldritch Abomination called the Neverborn (which they once fought and lost against resulting in a world getting locked out). They even had a number of members getting killed off. Only Vampirella and a Witch-Marked Red Sonja who are supernatural are able to win for the team.
- Man of Kryptonite: It's implied that the project chose the Flame and his sidekick Flame Girl as Vampirella's handlers because of their pyrokinesis; one of the ways to kill a vampire is by burning. However, Vampirella isn't that kind of a vampire so she never took the Flame's threats too seriously.
- The Multiverse: The task of the Project is to monitor the multiverse for superpowered beings and recruit them into the organization. Not all Earths have their own metahumans and those that don't are left alone by the Project. The Earths are referred to as Plural Earth [Insert Number] by the story.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In issue #1, Vampirella kills some Anticlan Mooks against orders. Unfortunately, they were outfitted with "evolving biotech"; her killing them simply causes them to merge into a horrifying monster which attacks the city.
- Odd Friendship: After probation with the Flame, Vampirella returns to her own Earth...with the Black Terror as a supervisor. Despite Vampirella's 1971 mentality versus Terror's post World War 2 attitudes, the two eventually become friends despite Terror's initial disdain for the "demon".
- Opposites Attract: The Flame, a superhero with fire-based powers, was once married to Hydromeda, the queen of an underwater civilization called the Saltkind. Their relationship ended after Professor Suppressor caused a war between the Saltkind and surface dwellers by tricking the Eastern Bloc into attacking the Saltkind Kingdoms.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Vampirella insists she is not a demon and is not a vampire "in the storybook sense". Later though she concedes she's a being who's origin is the Outer Dark, the same place as the Neverborn.
- Phlebotinum Overload: Played with. Anticlan is permanently wiped out inadvertently thru Vampirella's actions. She went after the evolved monster formed from dead Anticlan members and kept killing it...for 15 minutes. Every time it died it got stronger, but it was helpless because it could never keep up with the pace of Vampirella clawing out its vitals from her lurking inside its body. The A.I. powering up the Anticlan ended up generating so much heat trying to keep up, that it was noticeable to the Project and they sent a bunch of teams to permanently destroy it.
- Superhero Paradox: Vampirella states that when she arrived on Earth she was the only metahuman around, but ever since she was recruited by the project she has fought ten metahuman villains from her Earth. Black Terror states that this is quite common on Earths once a metahuman is introduced into the population.
- Super-Scream: In issue #4, Vampirella fights a metahuman named Brady Moyers who has this power.
- Tamer and Chaster: Under orders from Project Team "Red", Vampirella trades in her usual Stripperiffic attire for a long-sleeved Leotard of Power that covers her arms, breasts and back. While it still has a Thong of Shielding, it shows less skin than her iconic outfit. However, it gets a more revealing neckline in issue #4.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: One of the reasons Vampirella clashes with the other members of the Project is that she is much more willing to use lethal force than they are. This is deconstructed in issue #3 where it is shown that the Flame's refusal to kill his archenemy Professor Suppressor has perpetuated a feud which has claimed countless lives and has taken a psychological toll on the Flame.
- Unfortunate Names: The Flame's original headquarters was called "the Flaming Grotto". Vampirella jokes that it sounds like the name of a medical condition.
- Vampiric Draining: In issue #4, Vampirella fights a metahuman actor named Steve Alter who has the ability to drain people's life force.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Brady Moyers threatens to sink entire cities unless the government stops its wars.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: When the Flame argues against Vampirella killing Suppressor, Vampirella points out that he is sanctioned to kill her with his flame powers if she goes rogue. When the Flame stammers that villains are people, Vampirella calls out the hypocrisy of being willing to kill her for not being human while letting a mass murderer live just because he is human.
- This shows again when Black Terror's first reaction to the demonic invasion of his world is to try and stake Vampirella.
- World's Smartest Man: Professor Supermind has the power of being the smartest person ever, which is saying something as his team-mate Mr. Raven is the "World's Best Detective" and superhumanly smart with his quantum-powered intellect.
- Wrong Context Magic: The Project are used to dealing with threats of a scientific origin. Vampirella being a vampire, a creature rooted in myth and magic, confounds and disturbs them. It also means Suppressor's power-dampening handcuffs don't work on her.
