Comic Review: Death of Doctor Strange: Blade

Marvel Comics

Writer: Danny Lore

Artist: Dylan Burnett

Colors: Mike Spicer

Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham

Like all Death of Doctor Strange one-shots, Blade is only tangentially related to the event itself. While the core story is intriguing, Blade does little to tie itself to Strange’s demise or explain to casual readers what’s going. 

Readers must afford certain leniencies when jumping midstream into a story like this. That said, the book opens with vampire-slayer Blade teaming with Strange to kill Dracula and all vampires on earth. We next see Blade as a bouncer at Dracula’s very crowded vampire club. A clarifying sentence or two would be helpful, especially since the title is expressly written for readers of the Death of Doctor Strange event, not Blade readers.

What makes the setup odder is.. Very little happens in the issue. There’s plenty of room for Blade to be introspective or furious about his current contradictory situation. But he muses on very little beyond his unwavering hatred of bloodsuckers. Nothing about Blade’s actions or the (lack of) story hooks encourage readers to jump from this event into the series proper.

Blade’s “grief” for the death of Dr. Strange goes similarly unexplored. The White Fox one-shot was a more fun read than Blade, but both leave readers wondering why exactly these stories were necessary to include. The one-shot with Spider-Man and Black Cat was much more effective. It dealt with Strange’s death, the interdimensional repercussions, and gave us insight into Stephen as a character. And all while furthering the story of Peter’s coma and the feud between Ben and Felicia.

Character and story development might be lacking, but the art of Blade is a carefree blast through a world of bloody nightmares. Dylan Burnett employs an almost whimsical approach that successfully walks the line of hyper-detailed and muddled. His line work and designs harken back to 90’s glory. Mike Spicer’s colors are equally nostalgic and evocative. The artists mesh to create something between the cartoonish fun of Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and the gory kineticism of Deadly Class.

An opening sequence of Blade and Strange’s team up against Dracula has a great retro feel. A silhouette rendering of Blade chopping up some alien bandits makes for an enduring image, and the design of Blade in his fancy duds is amazing.