It’s no secret or surprise that Bryan Edward Hill is one of my favourite comic book writers at the moment.

Chariot – written by Hill and drawn by Priscilla Petraites – was one of the best comics I’ve read in the last few years; a smart, sexy, action-packed synthwave thriller that felt like an 80s direct to video B-movie, in all the right ways.

So when I discovered that Hill was writing a new Blade series, I couldn’t wait to check it out.

At the outset of this first issue, our favourite half-human, half-vampire – who lives to hunt the fanged, bloodsucking creatures of the night – rescues a young woman trapped in a vampire-filled club.

So far, so very Blade. At least how we know him in his more modern incarnation anyway – which is a pretty far cry from the jive talking vampire hunter he was in his first appearances in the 70s; Wesley Snipes so successfully updated Blade’s entire aesthetic and tone that it has set the template for the character ever since.

Though it’s an opening sequence that will feel familiar to – a vampire nightclub isn’t exactly an underutilised trope in Blade or vampire fiction in general – several striking touches in the fantastic art (by Elena Casagrande), such as seeing encroaching vampires in the reflection of a spilled drink, gives it a remarkable Bruckheimer-produced, action-movie-on-paper feel.

Even better, though the superb introduction eases us in to Blade’s familiar world, it doesn’t take long for the rug to be pulled out from underneath us – with twists and turns coming thick and fast in this surprisingly eventful first issue.

Hill’s writing is complemented wonderfully by Casagrande’s incredible art throughout too; this is most definitely the best that Blade has been for a very long time.

Not since Marc Guggenheim’s 2006 Blade #1 – in which the eponymous hunter fights a vampiric Spider-Man – have I been so immediately drawn in to a relaunch of the character in his own series.

Here, however, it’s done with nary a nod to the wider Marvel Universe and instead, brings us a unique and intriguing mythology that sets us up nicely for the series to continue.

Without a doubt, Blade’s new series is off to a cracking start here; this is one revamp (ha!) that’s well worth checking out.

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