Stephanie Kay
Oct 11, 2007, 05:19 pm
<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/previews/marvel/cons/wwphil06/BLADE001_col.jpg" target="_blank"><img src=" http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/previews/marvel/cons/wwphil06/BLADE001_colt.jpg" align=left alt="Blade #1" hspace="5"></a></a>Reviewer: Corey Brotherson, cbrotherson@googlemail.com
Story Title: Splinter Group
"Silver bullets. Sure, they're expensive. But worth every damn penny."
Writer: Marc Guggenheim
Artwork: Howard Chaykin
Colorist: Edgar Delgado
Letterer: VC's Rus Wooton
Cover Artist: Marko Djurdjevic
Assistant Editors: Molly Lazer & Aubrey Sitterson
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel Comics (http://www.marvel.com)
Blade is one of those characters.
He's one of those golden creations that strikes a chord on many, many levels. He's had a successful movie franchise and TV series that can provide a springboard for non-comic readers. He contains a wonderful and deep dichotomy of elements -the half human, half vampire who hunts the undead and fights against his blood lust- that all writers die for. He uses cool weaponry. He's linked to literature and mythology by interacting with the ever-intriguing ever-popular likes of Dracula. Hell, Blade is so damn valuable, that he not only has several high profile creators wanting to do something with him (Mark Millar, for one), but also hundreds of wannbe and indie writers falling over themselves to pitch to Marvel for. You can almost still hear the sound of the doomed Epic imprint groaning from the weight of all those potential Blade stories.
Yep, Blade is one of those characters.
But it's taken a long time to get to the stage where he can have his own series again. Not from lack of desire, I'm sure. After all the above reasoning, it's clear to assume that Marvel has had an abundance of people trying to shoot the character back into the funny books. So it must have been something pretty damn special from scribe Marc Guggenheim and penciller Howard Chaykin to get this far (it riding on a wave of re-spiked interest from the TV series, notwithstanding).
The result?
It's decent. I wouldn’t say 'special', but more than serviceable.
Guggenheim and Chaykin present a story that's not going to alienate any new readers, while throwing in nuggets to keep the long term fans interested. Blade battles a number of the pointy teethed demons, including -as the well developed cover shows- a transformed Spidey, and Dracula. Some may baulk at the rather quick fight between the Count and Blade, although Guggenheim has noted before that he would rather skip past the inevitable confrontation and focus on something new. Fair enough. Spider-Man's appearance is somewhat random, however, and not truly explained, leading us to think his presence may be more to do with getting a little sales boost more than actual plot significance. Tsk. That said, Guggenheim is unashamedly honest about trying to get as many new readers into the book as possible from the off in his introduction column. His aim of also presenting a self-contained story each issue which covers both present day and Blade's past is admirable and promising in the face of a comic book that has historically often had an uphill struggle with sales, so it's easy to see why the writer is pulling out all the tricks.
Guggenheim's version of Blade himself is quite a curious one. Here the Daywalker is quite a talkative and amiable, who's repertoire includes some rather dark humour. This isn't overdone or cheesy, so generally it fits within the tone of the book well. Intriguingly, we also get refreshed on the fact that Blade was actually born in London, something that's been canon for decades although diluted over the years due to the films and TV series rewrites. Which officially would make him a "southern fairy" (purely in the eyes of any "northern monkeys", of course - this particular Midlands-born writer is impartial). Although Blade with a British accent doesn’t really work for me, so Wesley Snipes' gravel tones still lives on within the pages. Naturally, none of this really affects Blade for the worse; he's often best when given a likable yet gruff exterior. As an opening story that much is true here, and you're left with a character that's charismatic enough to carry the issue nicely. It makes a change to have a protagonist -who can easily be thrown into the 'dark and brooding' category- switch things up a little and be a bit self aware and occasionally humorous. That the story takes place in mostly daylight also helps (although it plays havoc with the mythology and plot's logic at times, given the large number of roaming vampires).
Chaykin's pencils and inks provide a good partnership to Guggenheim's script. The man Chaykin possesses a very good eye for body language, especially during fight scenes. His style is ideal for portraying the creepiness of vampires in their myriad of forms, giving them an unmistakable (no pun intended) presence. Chaykin's layouts are equally impressive, giving clarity to what could have been potentially confusing scenes. Edgar Delgado's colours mustn’t be undervalued either, allowing a nice contrast between the chronological jumps of past and present. Again, the temptation to give everything a dark hue must have been there, and to avoid it without entering a cliché or garish look is a great achievement in itself. Lovely work all round.
By now you're probably thinking, "well, if the book is good, why hasn’t it scored higher?" Hmm. The work here is solid, fun and wholly enjoyable. As a first issue it establishes Blade's origin, his current affairs, his character and a future storyline, but despite some dialogue flair and nice artwork, it strays dangerously close to being by-the-numbers. Not so much in a bad way, per se, just more in a predictable fashion.
It's not as arresting as say, the recent revamp of Moon Knight, who's first issue encapsulated the character's problems, origin, action, conflict, theme, following storyline set-up and a powerfully shocking twist at the end to drag you back for the next issue. Here we get some of that, but in a very typical way. There's no real punch or hook that gets under my skin and has me itching for the next part. In today's market where shelf space is limited, there's not much room for that sort of passive reaction. Naturally this isn’t going to hold true for everyone, but it sadly did for me, hence the lowered score.
Nonetheless, it's a great, albeit unmemorable opener for Blade and the team so far. Let's see where it goes next. After all, the potential of the character -one of those characters- is clearly and always there.
OVERALL:
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Buy this issue online now from X-WORLD and save! ( http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopexd.asp?id=20618)
Story Title: Splinter Group
"Silver bullets. Sure, they're expensive. But worth every damn penny."
Writer: Marc Guggenheim
Artwork: Howard Chaykin
Colorist: Edgar Delgado
Letterer: VC's Rus Wooton
Cover Artist: Marko Djurdjevic
Assistant Editors: Molly Lazer & Aubrey Sitterson
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel Comics (http://www.marvel.com)
Blade is one of those characters.
He's one of those golden creations that strikes a chord on many, many levels. He's had a successful movie franchise and TV series that can provide a springboard for non-comic readers. He contains a wonderful and deep dichotomy of elements -the half human, half vampire who hunts the undead and fights against his blood lust- that all writers die for. He uses cool weaponry. He's linked to literature and mythology by interacting with the ever-intriguing ever-popular likes of Dracula. Hell, Blade is so damn valuable, that he not only has several high profile creators wanting to do something with him (Mark Millar, for one), but also hundreds of wannbe and indie writers falling over themselves to pitch to Marvel for. You can almost still hear the sound of the doomed Epic imprint groaning from the weight of all those potential Blade stories.
Yep, Blade is one of those characters.
But it's taken a long time to get to the stage where he can have his own series again. Not from lack of desire, I'm sure. After all the above reasoning, it's clear to assume that Marvel has had an abundance of people trying to shoot the character back into the funny books. So it must have been something pretty damn special from scribe Marc Guggenheim and penciller Howard Chaykin to get this far (it riding on a wave of re-spiked interest from the TV series, notwithstanding).
The result?
It's decent. I wouldn’t say 'special', but more than serviceable.
Guggenheim and Chaykin present a story that's not going to alienate any new readers, while throwing in nuggets to keep the long term fans interested. Blade battles a number of the pointy teethed demons, including -as the well developed cover shows- a transformed Spidey, and Dracula. Some may baulk at the rather quick fight between the Count and Blade, although Guggenheim has noted before that he would rather skip past the inevitable confrontation and focus on something new. Fair enough. Spider-Man's appearance is somewhat random, however, and not truly explained, leading us to think his presence may be more to do with getting a little sales boost more than actual plot significance. Tsk. That said, Guggenheim is unashamedly honest about trying to get as many new readers into the book as possible from the off in his introduction column. His aim of also presenting a self-contained story each issue which covers both present day and Blade's past is admirable and promising in the face of a comic book that has historically often had an uphill struggle with sales, so it's easy to see why the writer is pulling out all the tricks.
Guggenheim's version of Blade himself is quite a curious one. Here the Daywalker is quite a talkative and amiable, who's repertoire includes some rather dark humour. This isn't overdone or cheesy, so generally it fits within the tone of the book well. Intriguingly, we also get refreshed on the fact that Blade was actually born in London, something that's been canon for decades although diluted over the years due to the films and TV series rewrites. Which officially would make him a "southern fairy" (purely in the eyes of any "northern monkeys", of course - this particular Midlands-born writer is impartial). Although Blade with a British accent doesn’t really work for me, so Wesley Snipes' gravel tones still lives on within the pages. Naturally, none of this really affects Blade for the worse; he's often best when given a likable yet gruff exterior. As an opening story that much is true here, and you're left with a character that's charismatic enough to carry the issue nicely. It makes a change to have a protagonist -who can easily be thrown into the 'dark and brooding' category- switch things up a little and be a bit self aware and occasionally humorous. That the story takes place in mostly daylight also helps (although it plays havoc with the mythology and plot's logic at times, given the large number of roaming vampires).
Chaykin's pencils and inks provide a good partnership to Guggenheim's script. The man Chaykin possesses a very good eye for body language, especially during fight scenes. His style is ideal for portraying the creepiness of vampires in their myriad of forms, giving them an unmistakable (no pun intended) presence. Chaykin's layouts are equally impressive, giving clarity to what could have been potentially confusing scenes. Edgar Delgado's colours mustn’t be undervalued either, allowing a nice contrast between the chronological jumps of past and present. Again, the temptation to give everything a dark hue must have been there, and to avoid it without entering a cliché or garish look is a great achievement in itself. Lovely work all round.
By now you're probably thinking, "well, if the book is good, why hasn’t it scored higher?" Hmm. The work here is solid, fun and wholly enjoyable. As a first issue it establishes Blade's origin, his current affairs, his character and a future storyline, but despite some dialogue flair and nice artwork, it strays dangerously close to being by-the-numbers. Not so much in a bad way, per se, just more in a predictable fashion.
It's not as arresting as say, the recent revamp of Moon Knight, who's first issue encapsulated the character's problems, origin, action, conflict, theme, following storyline set-up and a powerfully shocking twist at the end to drag you back for the next issue. Here we get some of that, but in a very typical way. There's no real punch or hook that gets under my skin and has me itching for the next part. In today's market where shelf space is limited, there's not much room for that sort of passive reaction. Naturally this isn’t going to hold true for everyone, but it sadly did for me, hence the lowered score.
Nonetheless, it's a great, albeit unmemorable opener for Blade and the team so far. Let's see where it goes next. After all, the potential of the character -one of those characters- is clearly and always there.
OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mhalf.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mnone.jpg
Buy this issue online now from X-WORLD and save! ( http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopexd.asp?id=20618)