Publisher: Dynamite Creative Team: · Mike Raight · Guiu Vilanova Grade: A

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Things never go well when you're a Collins. One would think having the entire town of Collinsport named after you would give one a certain cachet, but you'd be hard pressed to find a single member of the family who didn't suffer from one curse or another. Barnabas, certainly, having suffered hundreds of years of vampirism, now slowly undergoing what he hopes to be a cure. But even young David Collins, seemingly normal, can't escape the dark shadows that surround the Collins family, or the family estate of Collinwood.

Things seem to be looking up, however, for David, as he finds himself unbelievably on a date with Emma, despite the protestations of Emma's friends. A movie and a kiss goodbye are enough to send the boy floating for the rest of the night. Would that Emma's own happiness would last as long; but before she can make it through her own front door, she's attacked -- a dark-haired figure in a black, caped coat leaps out and bites her in the neck before flying off into the night.

Give that we enter this issue with Barnabas fighting the cravings he's struggling so hard to sublimate, could it be he's lost the battle once again?

Meanwhile, Willie Loomis, in thrall to Barnabas, continues his quest for a mysterious bit of jewelry, leading him to Ireland -- and a smash-and-grab he's not going to easily walk away from!

Mike Raight and Guiu Vilanova do Dark Shadows right, setting the story in the early seventies and building on the original concept rather than trying to reboot it as some absurdist Addams Family knockoff (not that anyone would ever attempt something so completely stupid as that). The interiors and cover feel like they have a natural patina of a seventies comic, and they cram a lot of story and action into a mere 24 pages (just like publishers used to do in the good old days of yore). This is recommended reading for Dark Shadows fans.