The Doom Of It All — Reviewing ‘Strange Academy: Blood Hunt’ #3

Tie-in comic books are a mixed affair. Either they stand above the fray or become lost in the event waves. Stuck in a place where they are just a way to further side plot points the main series has no time or desire to flesh out. Having little to no identity of their own when all is said and done.

Unfortunately, Strange Academy: Blood Hunt and its three issues fall right into that tie-in space.  Daniel José Older, Luigi Zagaria, Eric Gapstur, Edgar Delgado, and Clayton Cowles showcase the power of friendship in this conclusion.

I appreciate what Older is trying to accomplish here. There are some threads and emotional vibes that very much resonate with the power of the original Strange Academy series. It just all gets consumed by the hunt for the Darkhold, stuff with Agatha, random Doom stuff (sort of set up for the main series), and friendly vibes fixing everything. Not to mention, the Doom stuff kind of just makes the book end on a random note and a lot of vagueness.

Sure, it leads into the final issue of Blood Hunt, but I doubt these kids will feature much there beyond the whole Sorcerer Supreme Doom bits. It also once again leaves these kids back in limbo space, when they had their own wonderful ongoing series for multiple years. No doubt someone will dig them up for another after-school special miniseries (hopefully a better one) or for some other event that deals with magic. Real lost opportunity that Marvel leaves like ¾ of their younger characters on the table and does nothing with them.

Those they do often what they do with them is lacking.

Okay, back to this issue. Friendship was a key thing in the original series, but it feels kind of hollow here. As Darkhold just sort of becomes ‘good’ after losing powers for a moment, and then Agatha is easily dispatched, and everything is fine. Outside of the Doom stuff, of course. Kind of feels like there was already a design on the page and the creative team was told to paint by number.

Once more Zagaria and Gapstur do a solid job of bringing things to life. It’s not as whimsical rough as the magic found in the original series, leaning more superhero friendly, but it works. There is still good depth and emotional range. Action, what little there is, has good motion and weight to it on the page. What really works overall are the depictions of the characters and how they interact with one another.

Delgado continues to use a well placed tonally muted color palette, that creates a more neutral baseline appearance. With the magical and supernatural elements being those that pop a bit more, so they stand out as they should. Shadowy darkness is everywhere, since that’s part of the vampire eternal night, and plays well with the other colors. Helping even the most neutral ones have a bit more lightness and power.

Character’s voices are strong, emotion and intention are always clear, as Cowles really delivers in that realm. Letting the words move around the page for the most impact, both dialogue and the caption boxes. Plenty of colors and visual flair find their way into the mix, so that voices have even more uniqueness to them.

Strange Academy: Blood Hunt #3 is now available from Marvel Comics.