Don't be fooled by Marko Djurdjevic's cover for issue one of Marvel's latest Blade revamp (perhaps, the fifth going back to the early 90's).  It's a striking image, but the Blade/Spider-Man battle it depicts isn't much of a battle.  I'm guessing this is some kind of leftover from a Marvel event.  Still, rest assured that writer Marc Guggenheim (one of Marvel's recent recruits from Hollywood) has a rip-snortin,' breathless tale in store for the reader.

In a one-page note to readers included in the rear section of #1, Guggenheim promises to give us two Blade tales per month - one story set in the present and the other exploring Blade's past, and Marc does indeed start #1 off with a double bang.  He gives us non-stop vampire fighting that has the flavor of the opening sequence from the 1998 movie, Blade (though Marc would like us not to focus on the film franchise), mixed with a horror survival video game.  The other story - the history of Eric Brooks, the future Blade - is also quite intriguing with Guggenheim judiciously dropping flashbacks throughout the present day story.  I'm intrigued.

The art, by Howard Chaykin, isn't his best, but it's perfectly suited for a Guggenheim's breakneck pace.  Chaykin's draws Blade as a 70's blaxtiploitation stud, and the backgrounds (most of them) are straight out of some gritty, urban drama.  The coloring by Edgar Delgado is a mixed bag.  Some of it is rich and dark, and the rest of it looks like a wispy candy coating so obviously applied by a computer.  The sepia tones for the flashbacks work perfectly, however.

I'm cheap and don't buy many comic books, but I'm sticking with the new Blade for at least a few issues because I think we're finally getting a good Blade comic.

7/10