What’s A Fang Between Friends? — Reviewing ‘Strange Academy: Blood Hunt’ #2

If there is one constant for youth. Superheroes or not, they tend to ignore their elders. To be fair, there are a ton of historical and societal reasons to very much ignore our elders, no matter one’s age.

The students of the Strange Academy believe they have the best of reasons to keep pushing forward against teacher’s orders in Strange Academy: Blood Hunt #2. The penultimate chapter of this short event tie-in from Daniel José Older, Luigi Zagaria, Eric Gapstur, Edgar Delgado, and Clayton Cowles.

If I recall correctly, my review for the first issue talked about how well it picked up the vibes of the original series, especially cast wise. Here in the second issue, some of that remains true, but I didn’t find myself having as much fun as the books with this cast have done magically in the past. While we get some good stuff with Germán and Pia (why he fears vampires, and how he overcomes that for Pia), it’s basically a big chase issue.

Not much is really laid out or developed, with only one issue to go. There is barely any Agatha with her quest to get the Darkhold child back, and then suddenly Doom is there, and the kids are totally down to throw their lot in with one of the biggest supervillains around. Sure, he claims he’s not going to use a formula to wipe out all vampires…but it’s Doom.

These kids that made their whole thing in the original books about being shrewd and smelling the bullshit of adults, are just not that now.

None of that really ruins the story, but just part of a lot of events that go down that aren’t as compelling as I hoped. Overall Older has a decent grasp on the characters, the event, and the Marvel Universe but some of the pieces of the puzzle created just don’t fit well.

Double artistic duties fit decently here. Zagaria and Gapstur have similar but also noticeably different styles. Some spaces are a bit blurred with characters, faces being off a bit, but it moves and breathes pretty well. There is a lack of something magical within the DNA that really made the book pop previously. That could just be the Humberto Ramos factor, but it’s not like he’s the only one that can create magic of that quality with art.

At least Delgado’s colors and Cowles’ lettering are still here to capture the old vibes.

For the most part the colors feel somewhat muted, toned down to create a certain look. That’s not to say there still isn’t plenty of vibrant pop that keeps the whimsical and fantastical elements clear as day. Being a story taking place during the enforced Darkforce night, there are plenty of shadows and darker tones easily incorporated into the spaces. Bringing the right ominous but also colorful feeling into play.

Speaking of magic and such, gosh what Cowles does visually with things is always fun. All those specific bubbles, colors, and font styles for particular characters that set the tone for their unique voices. Giving us something really tasty to look at as we play out the character voices in our brain. I’m always a sucker for the shapes, fonts, and colors that come with Doyle and Gus’ dialogues in particular. Just right away feels so right, and almost iconic which might be funny to say about characters only a few years old.

Yet, I’m saying it anyway. Because I can.

Strange Academy: Blood Hunt #2 is now available from Marvel Comics.