Cover Date: June 2019
On Sale Date: April 2019
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: David Marquez
Letterer: VC's Cory Petit
Colorist: Erick Arciniega
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Associate Editor: Alanna Smith
Editor-in-Chief: C.B. Cebulski
On Sale Date: April 2019
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: David Marquez
Letterer: VC's Cory Petit
Colorist: Erick Arciniega
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Associate Editor: Alanna Smith
Editor-in-Chief: C.B. Cebulski
Cover Artist: David Marquez
While Dracula is deposited at Chernobyl to live out his remaining days, a Russian prison has been transformed into a new vampire army by the Shadow Colonel. The Legion of the Unliving have defeated the Winter Guard and are seeking Dracula's location. The Avengers arrive with Thor's Asgardian dog Thori, who attacks the hellhound Sarge. Blade fights the Shadow Colonel and is nearly killed when Ghost Rider arrives to rescue him. Blade decapitates the Shadow Colonel, but the Legion of the Unliving escape with his body when She-Hulk explodes with gamma energy. Only Sarge is left behind to be imprisoned in Avengers Mountain. Blade decides to stay with the Avengers and Robbie Reyes asks him to help exorcise his car. This makes Johnny Blaze, the King of Hell, laugh on his throne, stating that he'll be seeing Robbie soon. Finally, at Chernobyl, the Legion of the Unloving bring the Colonel's body to Dracula, who set the vampire war in motion in order to gain a new homeland for his people.
While Dracula is deposited at Chernobyl to live out his remaining days, a Russian prison has been transformed into a new vampire army by the Shadow Colonel. The Legion of the Unliving have defeated the Winter Guard and are seeking Dracula's location. The Avengers arrive with Thor's Asgardian dog Thori, who attacks the hellhound Sarge. Blade fights the Shadow Colonel and is nearly killed when Ghost Rider arrives to rescue him. Blade decapitates the Shadow Colonel, but the Legion of the Unliving escape with his body when She-Hulk explodes with gamma energy. Only Sarge is left behind to be imprisoned in Avengers Mountain. Blade decides to stay with the Avengers and Robbie Reyes asks him to help exorcise his car. This makes Johnny Blaze, the King of Hell, laugh on his throne, stating that he'll be seeing Robbie soon. Finally, at Chernobyl, the Legion of the Unloving bring the Colonel's body to Dracula, who set the vampire war in motion in order to gain a new homeland for his people.
THE ROADMAP
Robbie Reyes makes his next appearance as a cameo in War of the Realms # 1.
Johnny Blaze appears next in Marvel Comics Presents (2019) # 6 and makes good on his threat against Robbie in Avengers (2018) # 22.
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| Ghost Rider, Blade, and Man-Thing (kinda) are all Avengers now? |
CHAIN REACTION
Avengers finishes off the war of the vampires in a way that seems to lose its focus.
I don't dislike this comic, its actually a fine conclusion to the vampire arc. It has spectacular action sequences, great artwork, and some solid character work. However, the flaws are showing hard with this one, and I think its biggest sin is dropping the Ghost Rider part of the story like a hot potato. Instead the focus is given over to Blade, which is fine since he's both the newest Avenger and the only actual vampire hunter in the cast. But he's not what this arc has been focusing on over the last three issues, which had at its core Robbie Reyes and his struggle to contain the Ghost Rider. He's an afterthought here and I think it pays that plot a great disservice. He does at least get a punch in on the Shadow Colonel, but its not the cathartic resolution that was needed.
There's other problems here as well, particularly all of the stuff with Dracula. Aaron really overplayed his hand with Dracula, having the character break down in tears before his inevitably inevitable twist reveal as the mastermind behind the war. There are timeline issues, with the Dracula scene at the beginning taking place in some nebulous time before the prison attack, which makes for a jarring transition from the end of the last issue to this one. Its unfortunate that so much seemed to go wrong with this issue, because it does have those aforementioned strengths.
The strongest of those elements has to be David Marquez, who turns in his final work for the series. His action scenes are so crisp and easy to follow, the characters move fluidly from panel to panel and it looks amazing. In what may be the fiercest, most brutal fight ever for an issue of Avengers, Marquez soaks the Blade/Shadow Colonel fight with blood and severed limbs.
This has certainly been the strongest arc so far for this series, and that's mainly due to the Ghost Rider elements in the first three chapters. With all of that pushed to the background, this one suffers in comparison.
I don't dislike this comic, its actually a fine conclusion to the vampire arc. It has spectacular action sequences, great artwork, and some solid character work. However, the flaws are showing hard with this one, and I think its biggest sin is dropping the Ghost Rider part of the story like a hot potato. Instead the focus is given over to Blade, which is fine since he's both the newest Avenger and the only actual vampire hunter in the cast. But he's not what this arc has been focusing on over the last three issues, which had at its core Robbie Reyes and his struggle to contain the Ghost Rider. He's an afterthought here and I think it pays that plot a great disservice. He does at least get a punch in on the Shadow Colonel, but its not the cathartic resolution that was needed.
There's other problems here as well, particularly all of the stuff with Dracula. Aaron really overplayed his hand with Dracula, having the character break down in tears before his inevitably inevitable twist reveal as the mastermind behind the war. There are timeline issues, with the Dracula scene at the beginning taking place in some nebulous time before the prison attack, which makes for a jarring transition from the end of the last issue to this one. Its unfortunate that so much seemed to go wrong with this issue, because it does have those aforementioned strengths.
The strongest of those elements has to be David Marquez, who turns in his final work for the series. His action scenes are so crisp and easy to follow, the characters move fluidly from panel to panel and it looks amazing. In what may be the fiercest, most brutal fight ever for an issue of Avengers, Marquez soaks the Blade/Shadow Colonel fight with blood and severed limbs.
This has certainly been the strongest arc so far for this series, and that's mainly due to the Ghost Rider elements in the first three chapters. With all of that pushed to the background, this one suffers in comparison.
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