Written by: Danny Lore
Art by: Karen S. Darboe
Colors by: Cris Peter
Letters by: VC’s Joe Sabino
Cover art by: Ryan Stegman, Rachelle Rosenberg, Karen S. Darboe, Cris Peter
Cover price: $3.99
Release date: February 1st, 2023

Bloodline: Daughter of Blade #1 introduces readers to Brielle Caulder, Blade’s daughter, as she manifests abilities consistent with her absent father. What’s a girl to do when she suddenly has enhanced speed and strength, which comes in handy when a vampire attacks?

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Is It Good?

If you’ve been following along, Bloodline was announced over a year ago, and readers got their first tease of the character during 2022’s FCBD event. The FCBD short story was weirdly bizarre and written poorly. This issue is not nearly as bizarre, but it’s still written poorly.

We meet Brielle Caulder as she enjoys the excitement of experiencing life through school. She likes sports and extra-curricular activities and is thoroughly supported by a strong relationship with her mother. A few years later, Brielle withdrew from everything but her studies, she dyed her hair a pinkish purple, and her mother started expressing concern about her changes in attitude.

What Brielle’s mother doesn’t know is that Brielle is starting to exhibit the traits of a daywalker, just like her father, Blade. One night, as mother and daughter walk home from Dinner, they’re randomly attacked by a vampire and instinctively work together to destroy the bloodsucker. And therein lies the rub.

You never get to see any of the radical changes Brielle experiences. Changes that would freak out any normal human. On one page, Brielle is a happy-go-lucky adolescent. On the next, she’s sullen, withdrawn, has superpowers, and knows about vampires. how do we know this? through painfully stiff dialog that describes things that happen off-panel. Comics are a visual medium, which means you have to show what’s going on – not poorly describe what happened in the past.

Somehow Brielle knows about vampires. Somehow mother and daughter are attacked in a dark alley by a vampire, and they tag-team the vampire like a well-oiled machine. Somehow Brielle’s mother thinks that now is not the best time to tell Brielle about her father or why Brielle has powers. Somehow, Brielle just goes along with it and starts hunting vampires on her own. And somehow, this amateur script still got published.

Regarding the art, it’s not great. Oversimplified line work, a stunning lack of details on even medium shot panels, and sloppy coloring permeate the entire issue. The panel layouts are at least attractive, but everything else looks like an uninspired indie project.

About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.

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Final Thoughts:

Bloodline: Daughter of Blade #1 is wholly uninspired, cheap, amateurish, and worst of all, boring. If you’ve been anxiously awaiting the arrival of Blade’s daughter for a new generation of adventures, you will be sorely disappointed.

4/10