Dark Blood, Vol. 1

Dark Blood #1-6

by LaToya Morgan, Walt Barna (Illustrator)

The debut speculative fiction graphic novel from NAACP Image Award-winning showrunner LaToya Morgan (The Walking Dead)!

Avery Aldridge was a decorated soldier during World War II; now he’s just an ordinary young Black man busy providing for his family. But he’s haunted by the wounds of war, and after a run-in awakens latent abilities, he’ll discover he’s anything but ordinary. But between flashbacks, ever-emerging and frightening powers, and a seemingly kind doctor with unclear motives, will Avery be able to make sense of his newfound abilities and what’s been done to him? Can he keep his family safe in a society that never wanted him to have any power? A bold, evocative genre-bending saga by NAACP Image Award-Winning screenwriter LaToya Morgan (AMC's The Walking Dead, Into The Badlands), artists Walt Barna (The Osiris Path) and Moisés Hidalgo (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers), and colorist A.H.G. (Broken Bear) about the power of love, family, and resilience. Collects Dark Blood #1-6.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Historical Fiction, Comic Book, Horror, Race, Fantasy

160 pages, Paperback

First published June 14, 2022

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to admit to being pretty frustrated by the storytelling in this graphic novel, but I do very much like the story of a Black veteran pilot of World War II in Jim Crow Alabama finding he has developed powers from some illegal human medical experimentation. Here's hoping the author has gotten all the time skipping and unnecessary narration out of her system and can just get down to business right off the bat in a second volume. And I would like to see a second volume, even if right now I'm rounding up from 2.5 stars.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unvarnished and at times painful to read tale of a Black WW2 veteran in rural Alabama and how his experiences both wartime and a decade later affect him and his family.


A scene as sadly topical today as it was in 1955.

[Whitney (The Cover Collector) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Terrible ending.

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't exactly start strong, but I at least didn't hate it, though was ultimately a short series that I found banal and forgettable.

Individual issue reviews: #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6

Total review score: 2.21

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

Dark Blood is an interesting and engaging story that takes some of the darkest elements of history and blends them into a grim but timely and powerful superhero origin story. The storytelling style wasn't completely my cup, with the epistolary side of it reading like heavy narration where heavy narration is not needed, but it's still good despite this. It's a good story, and I'm interested in the potential for more. If the premise sounds interesting to you, it's definitely worth the read.

[Carol Tilley · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 - for Issues #1 - 5.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a LOT packed in here. I could stand to re-read this, but alas, it's already overdue at the library. Guess I'll have to get back on the list for it. I see Vol. 2 is only available through my library on Hoopla as a digital comic. I know Vol. 3 has been released as well. Hopefully the library will be purchasing print editions of both. Not sure how many volumes will ultimately be in this series. Sometimes even the author doesn't know until they're finished.

[Zedsdead · Rating 4 out of 5]

A black war hero in 1950s Alabama gains telekinesis after being unwittingly subjected to chemical experiments by an unusually helpful doctor.

I'm four-starring (and probably overrating a bit) on the strength of the art and the extreme power fantasy gratification; few things generate as much delicious schadenfreude as seeing a Klansmen eat his own molotov cocktail.

But the story's layout--which attempts a familiar then, now, then, now structure--reads like it was dropped and put back together wrong. Too many shards held together by too much glue.

[Jake Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an impressive piece of story-telling. I loved the way it wove together different time periods of the main character's life to tell the story. Morgan packs a lot of story into these pages and the artwork is fantastic.

[47Time · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those stories with supernatural stuff happening to war veterans as a result of unethical experimentation from the government. It unfolds how you would expect, with authorities on the main character's tracks as he desperately tries to reunite with his family. Unlike some of those stories, there seems to be a well-deserved happy-end here. It's worth reading also to understand how black people were seen and treated by white people only a few decades ago. As far as I can tell, that part is spot on. Maybe it can help some understand that those days are, in fact, long gone.

Avery Aldridge is a former WW2 fighter pilot and hero. The story switches regularly between past and present events. In the past, Avery is trying to escape the Nazis after being shot down. He developed severe and increasing pain and a tree-like shape on his back. In the present and in a still-racist America, he uses telekinetic powers as a result of an event called Variance. They help him survive an encounter with a racist white man who shoots at him. The latter runs away in panic and gets run over by a car. Avery is now wanted by the police after being held responsible for the white man's death.

Worrying about his constant back pain, he visits a free clinic where an elderly doctor injects with an experimental serum. This is the event that ultimately sends Avery spiraling into his fatal adventure in the present. On the run from the police, he confronts the doctor who reveals that Avery was part of a secret experimental program to develop special abilities in soldiers. With the police surrounding him, he turns violent. He first destroys the serum research, kills the head researcher, then makes his getaway through the police line. He takes refuge with a church that employs him to protect none other than Martin Luther King Jr. He can't return to his family, but watches over them from afar. He has yet to learn that his daughter also has his abilities.

[Maya (Sup3rN0va) · Rating 2 out of 5]

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Dark Blood is about a WWII African American war hero in 1960's segregated Alabama discovering that he has powers and super strength, while he's living with his wife and daughter. I didn't really like this comic very much, it felt like it was very much a load of trauma porn.

This man gets captured in enemy territory in Germany during WWII and although he survives, he's physically and mentally scarred because the Germans killed his squad mate and tortured him. He makes it back to the states and has to deal with white American men and their racism and prejudice. He also has to deal with literally getting experimented on by more white men (which reminded me of the Tuskegee experiments.) Every white character in this comic is an awful human being.

It was 160 pages of trauma porn and I hated the ending. The only thing I really enjoyed was the art.

I'm giving this 2.5 stars out of 5
⭐️⭐️

[Alan D.D. · Rating 2 out of 5]

No puedo decir de qué se trata. El guión era desordenado, con un desarrollo errático que era imposible de seguir. Lo dejé a la mitad porque aún allí no entendía de qué se trataba la historia. Dos estrellas por intentar incorporar un componente social y, hasta donde vi, hacer la indignación del protagonista tan palpable que hasta a mí me hirvió la sangre varias veces.

I can't say what it is about. The script was messy, with erratic development that was impossible to follow. I left it halfway through because even there I didn't understand what the story was about. Two stars for trying to incorporate a social component and, as far as I saw, making the protagonist's outrage so palpable that even my blood boiled several times.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

A black man in the South in the 1950's develops powers after being experimented on. The disjointed storytelling and constant jumping back and forth in time made this difficult to read, particularly because we don't really ever get any answers about what happened. The stuff that happened in WWII didn't really matter in the long run either. And then it finished with an ending that wasn't really an ending. Hopefully Morgan can tighten up her storytelling if this ever gets another volume because I like the idea quite a bit.

[Mike Jorgensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book! I loved the cover art as it was coming out, but didn't hear much buzz about it... All that to say I LOVED it. Really great concept, strong pacing, great balance of telling the story from a few different points in time. This left space for a follow-up series and is definitely deserving!

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was so short -- maybe more like an issue than a volume. very interesting concept for a story.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surprising take on the Civil Rights era through superheroic eyes.

[Juel Santana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the ending! And current & past intertwine. Looking forward to volume 2.

[Scott Waldyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fantastic art, and the story is very strong in the beginning. However, by the final two chapters, the plot really fizzles out, and the ending doesn't stick the landing as well as one would hope.

[Rosa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too many flashbacks, not enough payoff.

[Jbondandrews · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had the potential of being an interesting story but it was just too confusing.

[Tiffany Lynn Kramer · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNFing at page 50.
The illustrations are good, and the advertised plot is compelling. Unfortunately, what I managed to get through was so disjointed that I lost interest.