Costume - battle armour

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Creation of the costume

The original Warren costume

The early Harris costume

Skimpier and skimpier

After her second battle with Mistress Nyx (in Vampirella Monthly #11) Vampi returns to Earth to try and save the planet from a worldwide invasion of vampires from Drakulon. As part of that battle she dons special battle armour that deflects energy and contains shards from the cross that Christ died upon as stakes to kill all vampires that touch it. The gloves contain a cross emblem on the palm.

On the left we can see Vampi donning the armour in preparation for her fight with Nyx, a fight she wins this time. But Vampi is left stranded on Drakulon to meet up with Lady Death, where once again she wears her armour at times, but otherwise reverts to her classic costume.

The battle armour is very symbolic of the Christian undertones that sweep through Vampirella in this part of the saga. Much of the origin of Vampi contains Christian imagery and the Mystery Walk (Vengeance of Vampirella #14-#20) treats the Bible story of Adam and Eve as if it is fact. Hence the cross of Christ with its vampire-repelling qualities takes on a reality for this section of Vampirella's plot line.

For details of how Louis Small Junior developed Vampi's armour see the article in Scarlet Letters Vol 1 Issue 12.

Below we can see Dixie discovering the battle armour Vampi leaves behind as she reverts to her classic costume again.

So how important is the battle armour? At the moment it takes up such a small part of the total history of Vampirella that we might be tempted to believe its role is virtually non-existent, yet is it? The need for some kind of covering may be more significant than we believe (in other words was Harris succumbing to the criticisms of the lack of costume?) or was it simply a device to try and stimulate interest in the fans?

We will probably never know. What is even more interesting is the speed with which the armour was dropped again and the return of the classic costume heralded.

Dixie discovers the discarded battle armour

All images on this site are copyright © 1999, Harris Publications, Inc. VAMPIRELLA ® and other characters are trademarks of Harris Publications, Inc. Text and concepts ©1999 Mike Grace. All rights reserved.