Advance Review: Storytelling Takes Center Stage In ‘Blood & Thunder’ #11

There is a Hopi proverb that says: “Those who tell stories rule the world.”

While science and engineering are important, stories help us to keep traditions as well as teach us in ways that facts and figures can’t.

After beating around the bush for several issues of Blood & Thunder, Akeldama “Blood” Bledsoe has finally learned that important lesson. Why it took so long is not, ironically, a testament to great storytelling.

Writer Benito Cereno has hinted for several issues that physical books in this advanced society are important. Yet those in charge sought to confiscate and even destroy books when they found them. Instead, people use tablets to get the detailed information they need.

Over the course of this issue, Blood realizes the power of storytelling. Presumably, though, the readers of this story — i.e. us — get this point already. Instead of being profound, Cereno is largely preaching to the choir. We get it. Stories are good. That’s why we’re reading one.

There is a larger story here — one that has been brewing for a while. It’s setting up Blood against her deceased father’s friends in the interstellar police force. It’s just taken way too long to get here, and that larger tale has suffered for it.

Artist E.J. Su does an OK job of depicting the action, such as there is. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have much to work with, save for a dream sequence where Blood literally comes unraveled. His work in that short sequence is the highlight of the entire issue, but it’s so short that it doesn’t end up making that much of an impact. And its connection to the rest of the story is unclear at best.

Comic book readers deserve good stories — but they continue to be let down by this series.

Blood & Thunder #11 will be available in comic book stores and on digital platforms on Wednesday from Image Comics.