Review - Van Helsing Annual: Hour of the Witch

From Zenescope Entertainment, a new Van Helsing one-shot - Hour of the Witch.

Liesel Van Helsing has gone against almost every type of monster and creature that the universe can throw at her, and she’s out-smarted, out-scienced, or overpowered just about each one of them. But what’s coming for her next goes beyond anything she could prepare for, with a power beyond anything she could fathom.

Story – Joe Brusha, Ralph Tedesco, Dave Franchini, David Wohl & Pat Shand
Writer - Pat Shand
Artwork - Sergio Arino & Julius Abrera
Colors - Grostieta Vinicius Andrade & Maxflan Araujo

This was an interesting crossover, and one I should have thought of from the title. The links between the heroes and the links to the past make this a good story and a reboot for Van Helsing.

After the harrowing time that Van Helsing has had, it is good to see her hunting vampires, although these aren't the vampires we know. Meeting up with a couple of infamous witch hunters that we know from the Grimm Universe, we get a good story that links to both of their pasts as well as a possible future.

Van Helsing mentioning 'good' witches was interesting and I wonder if Gretel is going to meet one of those in the future and what that will do to her beliefs.

The story is well structured and has some good aspects from the past to add to the current story. Van Helsing has always lived in her father's shadow and this adds to it and links in well to the ending. The action is well played out and has the advantages of close up fighting and big magical aspects.

The relationship between Gretel and Van Helsing is interesting - it is Van Helsing's book and we get her point of view, it seems that she's not a fan. It would be interesting to see more of them together down the line though.

This was a good done-in-one story with some good art and colours too.