Blade is on the road to redemption in a look at his latest Marvel series that comes with a parental warning. Marvel's resident vampire hunter has had a rocky road lately, especially when you factor in his role in the Blood Hunt crossover event. For the uninformed, Blood Hunt featured Bladebeing possessed by Varnae, the first vampire, and leading a vampire uprising across the Marvel Universe. Blade's daughter, Bloodline, worked alongside Earth's Mightiest Heroes to stop Blade and rid him of Varnae's influence, but Blade is left with the memories of his actions. The next stop on Blade's journey begins here, and it starts with a red band preview.
ComicBook has the exclusive preview of Blade: Red Band #1 by Bryan Hill, C.F. Villa, Java Tartaglia, and VC's Clayton Cowles. After finding success with red band editions of Blood Hunt, Marvel is keeping the trend going with this Blade miniseries that spins out of the vampire-centric event. The recap page tells us that while Blade's body has recovered from Blood Hunt, his body and mind are still reeling from the havok and bloodshed he caused.
Blade has relocated to the Lupui Island in southeast Asia, also known as the island of the damned. It's a place frequented by criminals and other individuals who want the world to forget them. Blade is living off the land, catching and eating fish. When he heads into town he finds a trader who he can buy steel from. We don't find out what Blade has planned for the steel, but he starts melding some of it while also forcing his hand to endure the hot blaze.
What happened to Blade in Marvel's Blood Hunt?
Blood Hunt was a six-issue event by writer Jed MacKay and artist Pepe Larraz. There were also several tie-ins and miniseries that spun out of Blood Hunt. It had some major ramifications for the Marvel Universe, which all stemmed from Blade's possession by the first vampire, Varnae. Some of Blade's first acts of villainy included turning Doctor Strange, Black Panther, and Mile Morales into vampires, blanketing the planet in the Darkforce Dimension to blackout the sun to allow vampires to run wild, and releasing the super-vampire group called the Bloodcoven.
It wasn't until the midway point of Blood Hunt that readers were told that Blade was being possessed, which was a sigh of relief to his fans that he hadn't turned on his allies in the Avengers. The heroes were able to win the day, but not with some lingering consequences. Doctor Doom was able to neutralize the Darkforce Dimension after Doctor Strange passed him the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme. However, Doctor Doom kept the Sorcerer Supreme mantle for himself, leading into 2025's "One World Under Doom" publishing initiative.
Doctor Strange and Black Panther were able to reverse their vampiric influences, but Miles Morales is left as a vampire. Also, vampires are no longer affected by sunlight.
What is Blade: Red Band #1 about?
For years, BLADE has been the deadliest vampire hunter in the Marvel Universe. With an arsenal of wooden stakes, silver bullets and razor bats at his command, few have known the taste of vengeance of blood like BLADE! But after the harrowing events of BLOOD HUNT, what's left of Marvel's most infamous vampire? Did any of the vampire within Blade survive? Did any of the man? Find out here, at the skin-searing dawn of a bloody new Blade saga!
The exclusive preview of Blade: Red Band #1 is below. The issue goes on sale Wednesday, October 9th.
