Time to check back in with 2 series Spider-Man has already appeared in, again. Punisher War Journal was doing pretty well, as I recall, but Blade, despite having all sorts of gratuitous guest stars and stunts (Spider-Man, Dr. Doom, a demonic Santa, a Civil War tie-in WITH a Wolverine guest spot, Blade losing a hand), doesn’t make it past issue 12, and I guess bringing Spider-Man back was one of the many desperate attempts to boost sales. I think every time I’ve ever looked at this series since I bought it which is not often, I’ve been surprised all over again that I missed #11. Marc Guggenheim, Howard Chaykin and Edgard Delgado at the boards. The 3rd-to-last issue of this series is not a good place to drop back in, a whole lot is going on and I do not remember any of it. The recap page says “Recently, Blade was forced to chew off his own hand in order to escape capture by Lucas Cross, a powerful man claiming to be Blade’s own father and the head of the mysterious order of Tyrana. In an effort to unlock the mysteries swirling about him, Blade traveled back to his native England, where he obtained a gun-hand, courtesy of his SHIELD connections, and learned more about the order of Tyrana from British superhero, Union Jack. Now more determined than ever, Blade is back in the USA, on the rail of his father and the mysterious prophecy Cross is intent on fulfilling.” You got it, buddy! Love it when you just obtain a gun-hand. After a flashback to Blade’s youth, he crashes an event Lucas Cross is at.
Blade being half-human, half-vampire AND half-black, half-white is a lot. Is he any other mixes of things? A little bit country, a little bit rock’n’roll? That reference means nothing to me, it’s before my time, and yet I know it. Funny how culture works. Blade leaves his dad and does Blade things, trying to learn more about the prophecy. He gets a line on someone who could tell him more who sounds familiar to him from issue 1 of this series.
Chaykin somehow drawing the black suit worse than the red & blues despite its simplicity.
How does one slay vampires with tranquilizer darts? “I’m a vampire tranquilizer.” Rather insanely, now, 9 issues later, we learn how Spider-Man got into the mess he was in at the outside of this series. Our hero saw the guy Blade is after going into an elementary school, and gave chase since he’s creepy, and found him with Dracula in the basement, digging for an amulet.
Remember how Spider-Man used to refuse to believe in vampires every time he saw Blade, the vampire? I’m glad we got past that. So then Blade got a hold of him and gave him some injuries I really don’t think he should’ve been able to just shrug off.
The End. For us, anyway. When next anyone saw him after this series, Blade mysteriously wasn’t missing a hand anymore. Reasonable retcon. “Oh, he just got a gun-hand, it’s cool.” Ok, 2nd feature:
Matt Fraction is now joined on this book like Cory Walker & Dave Stewart. Would you believe 2 issues hence, Howard Chaykin, fresh from the canceled Blade, would wind up here for awhile? This would begin a friendship between Chaykin and Fraction that leads to their Image comic, Satellite Sam, about a murder among the cast of a kids adventure show in the early days of television, which is FAR more suited to Chaykin’s work than superheroes. The recap here says “A few months back, Castle had a run-in with the Rhino that ended with the Punisher beating the Rhino like he owed him money. Then the Rhino narrowly escaped a bar the Punisher blew up, This on top of all the other beatings he’s taken across the Marvel Universe – it’s been a rough year.”
Rhino goes in through a wall, accidentally swatting a security guard onto exposed rebar, impaling him and not even knowing it. This leads to Frank finding out and not being pleased. Thusly do we find Rhino and the other guys arguing about what happened when one of them is shot.
Frank Castle, alleged protector of the innocent, dropping a whole Rhino, part of a building, and a subsequent volley of missiles on a Manhattan street. I think this guy might be unstable!
That first panel is legit funny.
We cut to several pages of Domino, from X-World, doing international spy stuff on behalf of GW Bridge, with whom she has some history, but that’s not really why we’re here.
A couple of those times recently, even!
Pure chaos. Yes, it’s “Al Kraven,” Kraven’s 2nd retcon kid, who’s since been in Hollywood doing whatever and I guess has now returned to the family business.
He is not gonna stay out of it. Especially when he finds out Kraven is kidnapping and warehousing animal-themed villains in cages. A situation that leads this issue to end with a flabbergasted Rhino actually hoping the Punisher finds him. But, oddly, Spider-Man does stay out of it, never to return during this storyline. That seems weird, huh? In the end, both Rhino and Baby Kraven escape Frank’s vengeance, so don’t worry. This was such a gonzo book. Ok, next post, back to regular programming.