Blade: Red Band #1

Name: Blade: Red Band #1
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

Dec 2024 · Marvel · 4.99 USD

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About this Issue

Blade: Red Band #1 marks the first solo Blade series to publish under Marvel's newly established Red Band label — a mature-readers, polybagged format introduced earlier in 2024 that represented the first time Marvel produced an explicitly adult-rated edition of an ongoing character's own title rather than a variant of a shared event book. The issue also carries genuine first-appearance weight, introducing both the Spellguard — a secretive sect of occult monster hunters — and Pontius Van Helsing, a centuries-old vampire sorcerer who is the series' central antagonist, on the same pages. Narratively, the issue resets Blade's status quo after the seismic Blood Hunt crossover event, in which the character was possessed by the progenitor vampire Varnae and turned against the Marvel Universe, giving writer Bryan Hill a clean emotional slate from which to rebuild Eric Brooks as a guilt-wracked exile rather than simply an action machine. It is the opening chapter of what the Marvel Database confirms is a finished five-issue limited series — the most ambitious standalone Blade story since the character's Bronze Age horror origins.

writer Bryan Hill · artist, inker C. F. Villa · colorist Java Tartaglia · letterer VC's Clayton Cowles · cover C. F. Villa

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (NM) $5

CGC 9.8 · 30 in census $62*

CGC 9.6 · 12 in census $30*

CGC 9.4 · 3 in census $30*

CGC 9.2 · 7 in census $30*

CGC 9.0 · 7 in census $30*

CGC 8.5 · 12 in census $30*

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CGC 8.0 · 1 in census $30*

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History

Blade: Red Band #1 was written by Bryan Edward Hill with art, inks, and covers by Carlos Fabian (C.F.) Villa, colors by Javier Tartaglia, letters by VC's Clayton Cowles, and editing by Devin Lewis under Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski. The series was announced by Marvel in summer 2024 and released on October 9, 2024, with a Final Order Cutoff date of August 26, 2024. It grew directly out of the Blood Hunt crossover event of the same year, which had established Blade as a compromised and fallen figure in the Marvel Universe, giving Hill a ready-made psychological wound to excavate. The Red Band publishing format itself — polybagged, Parental Advisory rated, with explicit content — had debuted earlier in 2024 with the Blood Hunt event series, and Blade: Red Band #1 was among the first ongoing solo titles to adopt the label wholesale for every issue of its run.

Trivia · 8 facts

Released October 9, 2024 (cover-dated December 2024); a five-issue limited series that concluded in 2025.
Written by Bryan Edward Hill; art and covers by C.F. Villa; colors by Javier Tartaglia; letters by VC's Clayton Cowles; edited by Devin Lewis.
First appearance of the Spellguard, a clandestine sect of occult sorcerers and monster hunters operating in the Marvel Universe (Earth-616).
First appearance (cameo/cliffhanger) of Pontius Van Helsing — a Roman-born ancient vampire, former Spellguard operative, and cult leader who serves as the series' primary antagonist.
First appearance of Lupui Island (Southeast Asia) and Son La — two new Marvel Universe locations introduced as settings in this issue.
The issue is published under Marvel's Red Band label, meaning it is polybagged and carries a Parental Advisory (explicit content) rating — part of Marvel's broader 2024 push toward adult-rated comics formats.
Story context: Eric Brooks (Blade) is living in self-imposed exile following the Blood Hunt crossover event, in which he was possessed by Varnae (the first vampire) and his own daughter Bloodline nearly killed him to break the possession.
The central narrative hook — a member of the Van Helsing lineage who has himself become a vampire — deliberately inverts one of horror fiction's most recognizable hero/monster binaries, mirroring Blade's own hybrid nature as a half-vampire vampire hunter.