Written by: Danny Lore
Art by: Karen S. Darboe
Colors by: Cris Peter
Letters by: VC’s Joe Sabino
Cover art by: Karen S. Darboe, Cris Peter
Cover price: $3.99
Release date: April 12, 2023

Bloodline: Daughter of Blade #3 finds Bri enjoying a family reunion when she’s introduced to her father, Blade, and seeks the answers to her miraculous powers.

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Is It Good?

File Bloodline: Daughter of Blade #3 under the heading of “The One Where Bri Learns About Her Dad” because that’s all that really happens in this issue. You don’t learn anything new about Bri that you don’t already know from Blade, Bri’s conflict with Whitney is barely addressed, and almost the entire issue is spent with Blade and Bri getting used to each other. Not exactly compelling stuff.

When last we left Bri, she was ambushed inside a vampire nest, possibly by Whitney’s machinations. Balde showed up just in time, while on leave from his post at the Vampire Nation, to save Bri from the attacking vampires and her sudden onset of vampire rage.

Now, Blade takes an unconscious Bri home, and the two make proper introductions after Bri’s two-day nap. The two bicker about Blade’s absence, Bri’s desire to be trained (why?), and the very loose mystery surrounding a new group of reckless vampire hunters in town.

If that description makes it sound like a lot happens, that’s because this review is better written than the comic.

After three issues, Bri, as a person, is still a mystery. The basic questions about motivation and goals are barely touched, so the reader has no reason to get invested in Bri. How does developing new powers make her feel about her life? Why does she want to be a hunter so badly? How did she not know vampires existed until two months ago when the UN officially recognized the Vampire Nation in Chernobyl over a year ago?

As Danny Lore writes Bri here, she’s a blank slate with no personality or depth. When combined with an issue that’s all talking, some exposition, and a teeny bitten of action, this series appears to be heading nowhere fast.

How’s the art? It’s fine for what it is. The art style looks like something you’d expect to find in a mid-grade YA storybook. Not a Marvel comic. To Darboe’s credit, the brief bits of action are choreographed well, but everything else is forgettable.

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 #3 reads more like the third act in a sedate Afterschool Special than a Marvel comic about a family of vampire hunters. The plot barely moves an inch, the well-choreographed action only makes up a fraction of the issue, and everything else is just plain forgettable.

6/10