Thursday, January 06, 2022

If these had been closer in the quarter bin, I probably would've bought them ages ago.

I still haven't finished reading all of the Revolutionary War event, but I did manage to get both issues of this one: from 1993, Warheads: Black Dawn #1, "Innocent Blood, part 1" Written by Craig Houston, pencils by Charlie Adlard, inks by James Hodgkins.
This issue seems to assume you've read Warheads before, which I had not; but I think they were your squad of badass soldier types, kind of like the Colonial Marines from Aliens, warping through alternate realities on different missions. Of course, Aliens didn't end too well for the Marines, did it? They've seemingly randomly landed in a deserted-looking Manhattan, and have to wait for the next wormhole out, when they are attacked by vampires. A lot of vampires. The Warheads lose a guy, before getting an assist from local badass, Shrike.
At his hideout in a church, Shrike tells the squad about the vampire plague, but doesn't have all the answers: he admits he had been bit multiple times, and didn't know why he hadn't turned. Then, we check in with vampire upper management: fresh blood appeared to be in short supply, and the "lower class vampires" were little better than animals and couldn't be trusted not to immediately drain a victim.
The vampires try to burn out Shrike and the Warheads, and in the ensuing fight the vamps capture one of the female squad members, Leona; while the Warheads' leader Liger seems to recognize one of the vamps. Although the rest of the team thinks Leona is probably bitten already (and they're right!) Liger still leads them into the vampires' stronghold, in search of "the truth..." Liger doesn't seem like the best leader, yeah. 

This one's mostly notable not for its embossed-foil cover, but was early work from Charlie Adlard; who would go on to the X-Files and about a million issues of the Walking Dead.

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