So far it’s not slavish to TV’s 1795 storyline, yet the changes they made weren’t the ones I would have made. If I plotted this story, I’d have taken advantage of comics’ unlimited budget and set the action in Martinique, where Jeremiah and Josette (and Barnabas and Angelique) first met, then followed the hints dropped about Barnabas’ vampiric origins dropped on TV prior to the revisionist flashback.
The comic does begin with the first meeting of Barnabas and Angelique, but it’s in Collinsport. Likenesses of the series regulars in their TV roles are good, but Sarah’s governess is conspicuous in her absence; there’s no Victoria Winters and there’s no Phyllis Wick. Also, Natalie du Pres is in the story, then she’s out, as quick as that. The comic does a good job of compressing the action… a little too good. Although Barnabas isn’t turned by the end of the first issue, the story is just about up to that point. For as often as I have complained in the past about “decompressed” storytelling in general, this story is perhaps a little too compressed. Things happen fast! Don’t let that put you off, though, if you are at all interested in this series. It’s off to a good start.
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I think they mentioned that Victoria shows up in the next issue.
You're right. (I didn't read the "next issue" blurb until you pointed it out.)
ISSUE #2: The problem with television's 1795 storyline (as I see it) is that it went on too long: too long to build and too long to get to the point. The “Year One” comic book series seems to be suffering from the opposite affliction in that things seem to be moving too quickly. If that sounds like an odd complaint from someone who routinely complains about “decompressed” storytelling, then it’s only because so many familiar plot elements seem to be missing. For example, Victoria Winters does appear, but only the vaguest of hints are given that she is not entirely what she appears to be. Granted, it’s not her story (not the comic book, although she was still nominally the heroine at this point on the TV series), but because she hasn’t been featured in the regular series at all up to this point, readers familiar with only the comic incarnation (if, indeed, such readers do exist) are missing a layer of the story.
It seems to be rushed, it seems to be hurried, but the comic book does have a higher “special effects budget” than the TV show did. For example, on TV when Barnabas was curded, he was attacked indoors by a single fake bat on a string; in the comics book version, he was attacked by a swarm of bats while riding horseback. I’m ambivalent to this series because I can’t really ascertain its audience. Those familiar with the story will miss familiar elements, and those unfamiliar won’t know what they’re missing.
ISSUE #3: This is the issue that really clicked for me! We get an alternate and (dare I say it?) better version of Sara death and Josette’s death than was aired on TV. As far as the “special effect budget” is concerned, this “episode’s” location shooting includes Naomi and Sara witnessing one of the Reverend Trask’s fire and brimstone speeches in downtown Collins port as well as a more realistic depiction of Widows’ Hill than we ever saw on the small screen.