Blade #8 - Marvel Comics

BLADE No. 8, April 2024

Considering that this comic’s basic premise concerns the titular character journeying down into Hell so as to recruit an army of the Damned, Bryan Hill’s unsatisfyingly sedentary script for Issue Eight of “Blade” doubtless frustrated the vast majority of its action-anticipating audience. Indeed, despite Eric Brooks encountering the giant, one-eyed undead guardian known as Abrath the Collector, the Dhampir never even swings his famous sword in anger; “Something in the living world is upsetting the balance.”

To make matters worse though, none of the American author’s storyline arguably makes much sense whatsoever anyway, as it’s never made clear just why the Day-walker thought he’d have any leverage against the demonic deity he faces. Sure, the half-vampire might have a valid point that Adana might “replace this Hell with her own.” But that argument hardly seems persuasive enough to win him the legion of unholy warriors he urgently needs to send against an all-powerful foe who has already previously demonstrated her ability to massacre multiple supernaturally-enhanced opponents single-handedly.

Furthermore, Blade’s trip to the outskirts of the Circle of Desolation and back again appears remarkably easy to achieve, thanks to Satana Hellstrom simply performing “just a bit of magic.” So basic a ritual genuinely saps any excitement straight out of the narrative, and makes it appear that there is absolutely no cost or risk to the dangers both Brooks and the succubus are facing. In addition, it makes Rotha’s requirement to quietly sit alongside them in order for the young cultist-turned-assassin to tenuously tie Eric’s soul to the mortal realm a bit of a mockery, and appears to have just been crowbarred into the plot for the poor girl to shockingly see her dead father’s ghost appear at the book’s conclusion.

Sadly, Elena Casagrande’s artwork debatably doesn’t do much for this publication either, with the artist’s rather static-looking style failing to inject many a panel with any actual dynamism - even when the likes of Draven are momentarily tussling with Abrath. Such listless pencilling was debatably never going to succeed with so dynamic an anti-hero as Marv Wolfman’s co-creation. However, due to a fair bulk of this book lamentably relying upon various splash-pages to pad it out, the Italian illustrator’s layouts probably land even more disastrously.

The regular cover art to "BLADE" #8 by Elena Casagrande & K.J. Diaz