The War of the Realms may be over, but there’s still unrest among the Dark Elves. Your Major Spoilers review of Strikeforce #8 from Marvel Comics awaits!
STRIKEFORCE #8
Writer: Tini Howard
Artist: German Peralta
Colorist: Guru-eFX
Letterer: VC’s Joe Sabino
Editor: Wil Moss
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: July 15, 2020
Previously in Strikeforce: As Birgit leads the fae Vridai on an infiltration quest across the Ten Realms, Strikeforce is hot on their heels! But for Angela, the battle is about to get personal. Old demons abound in the swamps of Svartalfheim!
THE SECRET OF THE VIDAI
After tracking Birgit to Svartelfheim, Angela finds herself separated from the rest of the Strikeforce team and in the clutches of the dark elves, with her mind being scoured by a terrible creature. Fortunately, Blade has very little patience for nonsense, and slices her free, just in time to reunite with the rest of the team, now aware that they need to find the Black Bifrost, the source of Malekith’s ability to send his forces all over Earth. The team splits up, with Angela, Wiccan and Spider-Woman investigating the site only to end up in Hel itself, while Blade and the others hang back. Karnilla and Hel send Angela off to fight her mother, Freyja (or some arcane image of her?) allowing them to once and for all find the Vridai and Count Ophidian, teleporting back to Earth just in time to… scare Deadpool?
HER RIBBONS WILL KILL YOU
My biggest complaint about this issue is that use of teleportation circles to move back and forth through various parts of the Ten Realms, but there’s never a clear sense of place. Worse still, the team members come and go at random, with Hellstrom refusing to go along into the Vridai territory, Blade disappearing three separate times, only to return as the cavalry each time and Winter Soldier just up and disappearing. Even a cool sequence where the cursed trio falls into Hel is damaged by the lack of clear storytelling. As for the story itself, I’m still a bit unclear as to the stakes of it all, the reasons why our heroes are involved or why Deadpool appears at the end, making for a confusing reading experience all around. It’s difficult to say whether the total package works or not, given how fragmentary this issue is and the lack of context for the art.
BOTTOM LINE: SOMEWHAT DISAPPOINTING
All in all, Strikeforce #8 seems like it has a lot of parts that could make for great story (after all, it’s the literal son of the devil, Thor’s angel sister, a brainwashed assassin, a young wizard, the best Captain Marvel and a nigh-immortal vampire) and a lot of potential, but the presentation here doesn’t come together for me, earning 2 out of 5 stars overall. It can be challenging to make an individual chapter of an ongoing story come together, but this one doesn’t quite stick the landing either in terms of art or scripting.
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STRIKEFORCE #8
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Writing4
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Art4
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Coloring5
