After the events of Blood Hunt, where Blade was possessed by Varnae, the first vampire, and almost brought upon the complete destruction of Earth, the hero was forced out of his self-imposed retirement by a mysterious organization that wanted to force him into taking down a deadly threat. He turned on the group (as he wasn’t about to go from being possessed by a bad guy to being forced to do anything but some OTHER group of bad guys), but in the end, he decided that their mission was one that he agreed with, and so, in this CBR exclusive preview of next week’s Blade: Red Band #2, we see Blade return to being a superhero…but in a really bloody and gory way.

Blade: Red Band #2 is from writer Bryan Hill (who wrote the LAST Blade series, and also wrote a major Blood Hunt tie-in. We discussed that series with him a while back), artist C.F. Villa, color artist Javier Tartaglia, and letterer Clayton Cowles, and besides showing Blade continuing the mission that the mysterious group known as the Spellbound tried to force him to do in the first issue, it is important to note that this is specifically a RED BAND comic book. This format debuted during the Blood Hunt crossover, where the Blood Hunt miniseries had special alternate “Red Band” versions that were polybagged that contained alternate versions of certain pages with a lot more blood and gore than the “normal” version of the comic. The current Wolverine: Revenge miniseries does the same thing, as well (two versions of the story, one “regular,” and one polybagged with alternate gory pages). However, Marvel has now launched a new line of horror-themed comic books that are ONLY in the “R-Rated” Red Band format (we recently shared a preview of the Werewolf by Night: Red Band series), and are released polybagged to prevent younger readers from seeing the blood and gore. So, well, that’s something to keep in mind before you read this preview, since it is very gory!

• BRYAN HILL (W) • C.F. VILLA (A/C)
• VARIANT COVER BY DOALY
• VARIANT COVER BY TBA
• THE BLOOD AND THE BLADE!
• Still reeling from the events of BLOOD HUNT and the dramatic fallout, Blade finds himself wanting more than ever to be left away from the world – but the world, and danger, won’t let the daywalker go, as he soon finds himself embroiled in a conflict and his bloodlust reignited!
• 32 PGS./Explicit Content …$4.99 [POLYBAGGED]

In the preview pages, we see Blade arming himself as he prepares to go back into action as a superhero again. He is still haunted by what he almost did while possessed by Varnae, but he knows that he has a great responsibility to take down this mysterious new group led by Pontius Van Helsing, and so he tracks the bad guys down to a dangerous town called Mowloon City, a city that, as Blade notes, “superheroes forgot about.” Blade walks through the town like a badass.

However, as soon as he steps into this tough area of town, he is accosted and held up at gunpoint. Blade quickly disarms his would-be robber, and then proceeds to relieve the bad guy of his brains, as well, by shooting a hole into his skull. Like we said, this is a bloody and gory comic book! To see how much more bloody and gory it can get, pick up a copy next week ahead of Thanksgiving!

Source: Marvel