Blood Bledsoe is one heck of a bounty hunter, and everyone knows it. But she wouldn’t be anything without her trusty sidearm, Thunder. Your Major Spoilers review of Blood and Thunder #1 awaits!

BLOOD AND THUNDER #1

Writer: Benito Cereno
Artist: E.J. Su
Colorist: Msassyk
Letterer: Rus Wooton
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: May 7th, 2025

Previously in Blood and Thunder: Akeldama “Blood” Bledsoe and her cantankerous talking gun Thunder are the best out there at bringing in the bad guys. However, when the galaxy’s most dangerous criminal breaks out of prison, Blood’s hunt delivers her down a path that will unlock secrets about her past, present, and future.

GETTING THE GOODS

Blood and Thunder #1 opens up in a prison where two guards debate on who should be the one who has to feed the most dangerous prisoner they have. It’s then revealed that the prison is actually a ship hovering over a satellite that’s been turned into a massive city. In the city, a man takes a taxi down to the deepest levels of the city where he tries to get with a sex worker, but is interrupted by an alien on the run. The alien is running from Blood Bledsoe, who chases him down, using a few of her gun’s many functions to finally get him and his contraband, which turns out to be a box full of books. At the police station, Blood turns in her bounty and has a conversation with the police chief about joining the academy. Elsewhere, things are not going well on the prison ship.

THE SUM OF ITS PARTS

No comic exists in a vacuum; every single one of them pulls inspiration from elsewhere. Typically, though, there’s some other stuff in between the influences, that’s not the case with Blood and Thunder #1. So, in this issue we are introduced to a world with a sanitized and clean top and a dirty underground level, kind of like Demolition Man, which we get to explore in a taxi pulled straight from The Fifth Element, we get a hardcore protagonist with a cool multi-function gun kind of like Judge Dredd, we get an instigating crime revolving around the smuggling of books filled with banned stories kind of like Equilibrium, and everything is presented in a tone that sounds like it could exist in The Last Action Hero scenes where they’re in the movie. The problem really comes from how inconsistent it all is. It’s not tongue-in-cheek enough to come off like a parody or satire, but it doesn’t play it straight enough to be a typical action comic. This is especially apparent in the dialogue, which can go from some of the silliest 80s action movie-sounding one-liners to actual sincerity in the matter of a page. Now, while the tone of this leaves room for improvement, the actual panel-to-panel action and plot is fun. Seeing Blood use Thunder in some creative ways is just downright cool, and their back and forth does a pretty good job of establishing stakes as well as their relationship. The issue ends on a typical cliffhanger, which doesn’t generate a lot of intrigue, but it does act more like a promise that we’ll at least be getting more action.

FEELS RESTRAINED

Another area harmed by the amount of borrowing in Blood and Thunder #1 is the visuals. In some spots, there’s proof that the capability for unique character and world design exists, but everywhere else, it feels like the notes were, “Hey, can you make this thing look like the thing from that movie and/or comic?”

BOTTOM LINE: DOESN’T DO ENOUGH TO DEVELOP ITS OWN IDENTITY

Blood and Thunder #1 comes off as if it just doesn’t know what it wants to be. There’s some stuff in here tat makes it seem like it’s trying to be commentary, or even a cautionary tale of sorts, but these elements have to compete with other parts of this that feels like its trying to be an earnest sci-fi action adventure and there just isn’t enough connective tissue to meld the two sides. Also, this identity problem isn’t helped at all by the number of things in this issue that look like they were copied directly out of other stuff. 3 out of 5 stars.

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