Blade #1-5 (2002)


Blade’s publication history has been spotty at best.  Really, it’s been pretty bad. He is an interesting character who works best in ensembles (top stories were from Marv Wolfman’s Tomb of Dracula series), and whose solo books are generally of low importance and are only moderately entertaining.  This series is no exception.  What is odd about this series is that the first five issues tell a single story, then the sixth issue is a standalone.  This indicates that maybe this was first written to be a regular monthly, but lack of interest led to cancellation after just six issues.

In this initial arc, Blade confronts another new coven of vampires—called Tyrk—while trying to evade capture by The Seven, another secret anti-vampire society.  In other words, this is pretty similar to several other Blade stories.  The only difference here, maybe, is that the queen of the Tyrks tricks Blade into sleeping with her and getting her pregnant with his child—in an effort to create a super-vampire.

In the end, The Seven realize that Blade is an asset who kills vampires so they leave as reluctant allies.  The Seven and Tyrk species are never seen again—which also supports the idea that initially this was intended to be an ongoing story.

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