Blade #5 - Marvel Comics

BLADE No. 5, January 2024

Disconcertingly skipping the much-hyped fight between the titular character and the Adana, this twenty-page periodical’s plot probably had many within its audience surreptitiously double-checking to make sure they hadn’t missed an instalment of Bryan Hill’s lengthy “Mother Of Evil” narrative within mere moments of starting it. True, Issue Five of “Blade” does contain a confrontation between the Daywalker and his supernatural nemesis. But it’s disappointingly set in the aftermath of the pair’s highly anticipated ‘off-screen’ skirmish, and rather disagreeably ends with an utterly impotent Eric Brooks being cast back to our present reality with his tail well and truly tucked between his legs; “Our business is done. This is goodbye.”

To make matters worse though, Marv Wolfman’s co-creation has apparently learnt absolutely nothing from the hell-creature easily breaking his wrist and seizing Lucifer’s Sword – apart from perhaps an ability to behave in an incredibly dislikeable manner towards the Sorcerer Supreme. Everything bad which happens in this book has been as a result of Dhampir’s arrogance and unwillingness to listen to the advice of Doctor Strange. Yet just as soon as the half-vampire can stand again he is threatening to unheroically scythe down the Master of the Mystic Arts because he arrogantly still believes he knows how to defeat the “indescribable, overwhelming power” of his foe.

Perhaps this comic's biggest headscratcher though comes at its confounding conclusion, when Blade willingly kneels in supplication at the feet of Count Dracula, and offers the blood-drinking fiend Lucifer’s Sword if the Transylvanian nobleman will help him better understand himself. This bizarre scene was presumably penned by the American author so as to tap into the old proverb of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’. However, whilst Hill has clearly conjured up a formidable rival for Brooks to battle in the Adana, a partnership with the vampire-killer’s biggest adversary, Vlad the Impaler, is arguably pushing this ongoing series’ logic a little too far..?

Disappointingly, this script’s unwillingness to portray the savage carnage of Eric’s ferocious struggle against werewolf, cultist and demon-spawned creature also means that Elena Casagrande has little to do except pencil him getting madder as he talks with either Stephen Strange or the Adana. This genuinely feels like a real waste of the Eisner Award-winning artist’s talent, which is debatably only given room to manoeuvre when it comes to pencilling the incredibly painful internal struggle taking place between Tulip and the devil now physically residing inside her body.

The regular cover art to "BLADE" #5 by Elena Casagrande & Romulo Fajardo Jr.