Blade #9 - Marvel Comics

BLADE No. 9, May 2024

Considering Bryan Hill’s storyline for this twenty-page periodical depicts Blade nonchalantly massacring the entirety of the Archives of the Second World without so much as getting a hair out of place, it’s probably crystal clear just why this is the penultimate issue of a title originally much-hyped as an “all-new ongoing solo series” which would dawn a “new age of vampire hunting”. True, the comic does contain a modicum of pulse-pounding action during its opening, when the werewolf Tanaka unsuccessfully attempts to evade capture from the Dhampir he was warned not to play games with. But this is incredibly short-lived, and everything which follows the lycanthrope’s beheading just seems to fall straight into Eric Brooks’ lap without rhyme, reason or even rationality.

Leading this conveyor belt of contrivances is arguably the sword-wielding slayer’s trip to the aforementioned Archives, which unsurprisingly are manufactured by the American author just for the titular character to annihilate in this book. Supposedly a highly secret location, packed full of ancient black magic tomes and protected by a thousand-year pact, this apex of stored dark knowledge would surely pose even the much-lauded Daywalker an almost insurmountable hurdle to overcome..? Yet the vampire-killer simply asks Satana “nicely” where it is and then toddles off to destroy it; “You cannot be here! You should not even know of this place!”

Correspondingly catastrophic is how Blade discovers the specific whereabouts of his arch-nemesis the Adana, with Draven apparently now able to conveniently burrow into any living being’s mind (even when they’re the undead) and suck them dry of information. This extremely useful power debatably springs out of nowhere, and disconcertingly allows the Chicago-born writer to have Brooks forgo any effort to track his main target down himself – albeit it does subsequently lead to penciller Valentina Pinti desperately having to sketch seventeen sedentary panels filled to the brim with poetic banter to presumably help pad out the publication.

Indeed, there’s a distinct feeling with some of this comic’s interior artwork that possibly its Italian Illustrator wasn’t always completely sold on Hill’s script, such as when Draven places his hand on Tanaka’s head, and instead of any surreal insight into the mental madness which the deceased assassin’s presence obviously causes, the reader is underwhelming just shown Rotha and Tulip watching on. Such a lack-lustre portrayal of events is disappointing, and greatly contrasts with the werewolf’s pulse-pounding flight just moments before.

The regular cover art to "BLADE" #9 by Elena Casagrande & K.J. Diaz