I know. I know. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking: “Another vampire book?!?!? You’ve got to be kidding me! When is this vampire thing gonna end?” Actually, now that I consider it a bit, maybe I’m just projecting what I was thinking, onto you. But, I’m not a psychologist, even though I play when on the internets. So, there’s that.
Anyway, any (or all) of those thoughts may have passed through my mind when I sat down to read Dark Horse’s new book Bad Blood. But, I have to admit, after making my way through the first book (of 5), Bad Blood may be another vampire story, but it’s got an interesting twist (iknowiknowiknow, like we haven’t heard that one before, either. Trust me, though. It’s true).
For the youngsters in the crowd, a warning…spoilers contained herewithin:
The story opens up with two lifelong friends, making their way through college; both, at one point in the recent past, highly regarded football players. Where the story begins, though, one friend (Trick) is sick fighting multiple bouts of cancer.
Trick is still cared for/looked after by his buddy Kyle, but Trick is suffering from the long term effects of multiple bouts of chemotherapy.
Kyle leaves Trick one day to deal with a family matter, when shortly thereafter, Trick is suddenly attacked/bit by a vampire. After sinking his fangs into Trick’s neck, the vamp immediately pulls away, his face bubbling and burning up from Trick’s chemo infused “bad blood”(get it?!?!?) The story progresses from there.
Here’s my main problem with the book. The vampire literally comes out of no where. Just appeared. Now, there may be more of the story about the vampire to follow, in the subsequent issues. But, as a stand alone story? What’s the vampire’s deal? Where did he come from? And why? Why now? WHY?!?!?!
This is part of the problem when reviewing a single issue of a 5 book series. Even though this book isn’t a stand alone issue, some sort of allusion to the vampire before he attacked Trick is kinda warranted. Some sort of one page prologue, would’ve sufficed, but…something?!?!?
The art is a nice cross between another Dark Horse book, Matt Kindt’s Mind MGMT and David Aja’s work on Marvel’s Hawkeye. But, at $3.99 a pop, Bad Blood is a bit on the pricey side for me. I’d say, if you have a light week and looking for something new, it’s worth a peek. Your friendly neighborhood jman gives it:
3 out of 5 saluting Caps
Newsdesk
[…] that, my friends, is all you get. At least here. But…fret not. Head on over to fanboyfactor.com to read the rest of the article, Comic Review: Bad Blood (Dark Horse). And when you get there, […]