A life of solitude is cut short by the arrival of a shadowy organization with a request arrives on his doorstep.  Your Major Spoilers review of Blade Red Band #1 from Marvel Comics, awaits!

BLADE RED BAND #1

Writer: Bryan Hill
Artist: C.F. Villa
Colorist: Java Tartaglia
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles
Editor: Devin Lewis
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: October 9th, 2024

Previously in Blade: While being possessed by the very first vampire, Blade helped bring about the events of Blood Hunt.  To stop him, his own daughter was enlisted and nearly killed him.  After breaking free from the possession, Blade has gone into exile.

A QUIET LIFE

Blade #1 starts off with Blade holed up on a jungle island, living off the land, and surviving the wilds.  A local village is filled with others like him who wish to be forgotten.  He ventures there to get steel and access to an abandoned forge.  He creates a new sword just as he’s visited by an unwelcome guest who claims to be an emissary of the Spellguard.  He claims that the Spellguard is there to uphold balance and that someone is threatening that and needs to be killed, that person being Pontius Van Helsing.  Blade decides to hear out the request and boards a helicopter.  On another island Blade is presented with a person who has been affected by Pontius Van Helsing’s magic who is horribly disfigured and in anguish.   Blade rejects their offer to kill Van Helsing and in turn they attack him.  He dispatches them, then decides that he’ll pursue Van Helsing for his own purposes.

A BLOODY DECENT TIME

Blade #1 has a very strong start.  While it’s a bit overly serious, having Blade being a self-flagellating recluse, is a fitting take on the character.   Seeing Blade being introspective and actually questioning himself is a nice change of pace for a character that has become a little shallow in recent outings.  The time Blade spends on the island, while brief, is the most interesting bits of this issue.  Things get far less interesting with the arrival of The Spellguard.  At that point it becomes the standard Blade first issue fare.  A questionable organization or person comes to Blade asking for help in taking down some vampire-adjacent threat, Blade huffs and grunts until reluctantly agreeing, people get sliced with a  sword.  Beyond being run of the mill, it doesn’t quite match the tone set up in the first part of this comic, which leaves Blade #1 feeling not in step with itself. That’s not to say that this blueprint is bad, but so far, the pieces being slotted into it lack any sort of panache or have shown to be all that sinister.

GROTESQUE BUT NOT OVER THE TOP

Blade #1 finds a good balance between the grotesqueness of the violence and the results of occultism while still being restrained and letting the character expressions carry the visuals.  While the emotions from the main character range from quiet gruffness to angry gruffness, that’s at least shown well.  The best bit of art in this issue comes from when the Spellguard reveal the results of Van Helsing’s experiments.  The reader is able to sympathize with them due to how disfigured they are, but it doesn’t go so far into making them nightmare fuel.

BOTTOM LINE:  HACKING AND SLASHING RIGHT DOWN THE MIDDLE

Blade #1 isn’t a very compelling comic book.  It’s also not a bad comic book either.  It’s a pretty straightforward establishing issue that plays it safe.  There are some nice character moments for Blade at the beginning, but that is countered by some less than interesting villains and foils.  Like with any new series, time will tell if this gets to a more interesting place, but if this first issue is not giving a lot to go off of.  Visually there’s some good things happening and while there’s plenty of violence to be had here, it won’t make anyone particularly squeamish.  3.5 out of 5 stars.

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Blade #1

70%

70%

Should've Stayed On The Island

Blade #1 tries to give the main character some depth and a different sort of pathos, but these efforts are weighed down with a less than interesting plot to push him down.

• Writing

  6
• Art

  8
• Coloring

  7
• User Ratings (0 Votes)
  0