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Milestone Returns
Blood Syndicate: Season One
Blood Syndicate: Season One – Wise Son, Tech-9, and Fade Return, But Who Will Rule Paris Island?
Wise Son and Tech-9 have returned from their military tours in Afghanistan—and life in Dakota City could not be more different. While Icon and Rocket have been busy cleaning up the streets, Bang Babies have been forming rival gang factions. With Holocaust’s influence—and super-powered army—growing, who will look out for the people of Paris Island when the capes aren’t watching? What secrets do Wise and Tech hide from their time overseas? As the struggle for power on the chaotic streets spills into war…who will emerge victorious as the new kingpin of Paris Island?
Original Blood Syndicate series artist CHRISSCROSS teams up with rising-star writer Geoffrey Thorne in this reimagining of the fan-favorite Milestone series!
Collects Blood Syndicate: Season One #1-6.
Wise Son and Tech-9 have returned from their military tours in Afghanistan—and life in Dakota City could not be more different. While Icon and Rocket have been busy cleaning up the streets, Bang Babies have been forming rival gang factions. With Holocaust’s influence—and super-powered army—growing, who will look out for the people of Paris Island when the capes aren’t watching? What secrets do Wise and Tech hide from their time overseas? As the struggle for power on the chaotic streets spills into war…who will emerge victorious as the new kingpin of Paris Island?
Original Blood Syndicate series artist CHRISSCROSS teams up with rising-star writer Geoffrey Thorne in this reimagining of the fan-favorite Milestone series!
Collects Blood Syndicate: Season One #1-6.
152 pages, Hardcover
First published May 23, 2023
6 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
About the author
Geoffrey Thorne
168 books73 followersGeoffrey Thorne is an American novelist and screenwriter.
Thorne was born in the United States and currently lives in Los Angeles, California.
After winning Second Prize in Simon & Schuster's sixth annual Strange New Worlds anthology with his story "The Soft Room," he went on to publish more stories in several media tie-in anthologies as well as the Star Trek: Titan novel Sword of Damocles.
As a screenwriter, Thorne has worked with Disney, Cartoon Network, STARZ, developing various properties. His TV work includes BEN 10: ULTIMATE ALIEN & OMNIVERSE, LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT and the hit TNT series', LEVERAGE and THE LIBRARIANS.
Thorne is the co-founder and writing partner in GENRE 19, a studio he formed with artist Todd Harris in 2008.
Thorne was born in the United States and currently lives in Los Angeles, California.
After winning Second Prize in Simon & Schuster's sixth annual Strange New Worlds anthology with his story "The Soft Room," he went on to publish more stories in several media tie-in anthologies as well as the Star Trek: Titan novel Sword of Damocles.
As a screenwriter, Thorne has worked with Disney, Cartoon Network, STARZ, developing various properties. His TV work includes BEN 10: ULTIMATE ALIEN & OMNIVERSE, LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT and the hit TNT series', LEVERAGE and THE LIBRARIANS.
Thorne is the co-founder and writing partner in GENRE 19, a studio he formed with artist Todd Harris in 2008.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 9, 2023
3.5 stars
I'm not especially familiar with the Blood Syndicate (YET! watch me go home and jump on the original stuff) and this volume doesn't hold your hand, just drops you straight in and you pick it up as you go. The art is fantastic and the pace is frenetic. I dug it for the most part; things always get chaotic when you have time-jumpers involved. Loved the nod to Dwayne McDuffie. More Wise, and Fade/Silke please.
I'm not especially familiar with the Blood Syndicate (YET! watch me go home and jump on the original stuff) and this volume doesn't hold your hand, just drops you straight in and you pick it up as you go. The art is fantastic and the pace is frenetic. I dug it for the most part; things always get chaotic when you have time-jumpers involved. Loved the nod to Dwayne McDuffie. More Wise, and Fade/Silke please.
January 30, 2025
I read a few issues of the original BLOOD SYNDICATE comics when Milestone Media came onto the comics scene (1993-1996). Then, as now, they were distributed by DC Comics and were distinctive in that they featured heroes of minority races written and drawn by minority creators. I appreciated and admired the concept and bought many of the beginning issues of each series. I might have gone further than that but my comics budget back then was pretty tight.
From what I remember, this is almost a retelling of the Blood Syndicate origins. Back then, police sought to break up a huge gang fight on Paris Island and used an experimental tear gas laced with a radioactive substance so they could use it to track down those they didn’t apprehend immediately. Instead, the gang members were mutated and obtained super-powers based on things in their vicinity — water, bricks, fire, etc.(and also the ability to roll back time enough to save heroes killed in battle, which plays a critical role in the story).
Writer Geoffrey Thorne gives the story a modern update, adding street gang language/slang and even having characters speak in Spanish, Haitian, and other languages (but without translations). The art by Crisscross is dynamic but also too cluttered in some of the battle scenes.
What the mini-series boils down to is good super-powered street gang versus bad super-powered street gang. The back story of these characters is only provided for some, and their motivations are sometimes vague. To complicate matters they address each other either by real name or code name. There are so many characters it makes it difficult to sort it out.
A noble effort that fell down in execution. Looks like the ambitious plans to revive the Milestone universe will not come to fruition. That’s a shame.
From what I remember, this is almost a retelling of the Blood Syndicate origins. Back then, police sought to break up a huge gang fight on Paris Island and used an experimental tear gas laced with a radioactive substance so they could use it to track down those they didn’t apprehend immediately. Instead, the gang members were mutated and obtained super-powers based on things in their vicinity — water, bricks, fire, etc.(and also the ability to roll back time enough to save heroes killed in battle, which plays a critical role in the story).
Writer Geoffrey Thorne gives the story a modern update, adding street gang language/slang and even having characters speak in Spanish, Haitian, and other languages (but without translations). The art by Crisscross is dynamic but also too cluttered in some of the battle scenes.
What the mini-series boils down to is good super-powered street gang versus bad super-powered street gang. The back story of these characters is only provided for some, and their motivations are sometimes vague. To complicate matters they address each other either by real name or code name. There are so many characters it makes it difficult to sort it out.
A noble effort that fell down in execution. Looks like the ambitious plans to revive the Milestone universe will not come to fruition. That’s a shame.
January 23, 2025
Hood Antics! Not enough super heroics. I am coming to this review as someone who didn't read the original Milestone series for the Blood Syndicate. I am familiar with some of the characters and settings since I really enjoyed the Static books and Icon was always interesting to me. I am sorry to say that I didn't enjoy reading this book. The artwork was good and the coloring wasn't bad either. You do get some action but the book does seem bogged down by slow character dialogue and just over the top stuff you might find in films like Menace to Society. My biggest gripe with this book is about who was the target audience with this series. Much of the plot is steep in gang culture and police over reach. I can see how Thorne was inspired by the things we see to often in the news concerning urban city life. But for me there in lies the problem. If super heroes exist they would offer quick solutions to problems like gang violence, police brutality & corruption. Thorne does an okay job of world building in the book but I felt the direction the plot was going has big implications for the Milestone universe. This left me a bit disappointed because I just didn't want to continue on with this series. This is a problem with Thorne's writing. Just check out his run on Green Lantern. Read Green Lantern, Vol 1: Invictus for example. That series had some great ideas and Thorne pretty much broke the mythos without putting it back together. I didn't really feel hopeful while reading his book so much talk among the characters about turf and gangster posturing. Even when Icon shows up in the book our heroes still revert o being more like a street gang. Not my cup of tea.
September 15, 2025
I believe the only comics I have read from the 90s are a stack of Blood Syndicate comics gifted to me by a cartoonist I interviewed during college. Not something I'd typically pick up myself, but I don't try to turn down gifts and I don't leave comics unread
It took some time for my forged-by-the-New-52 (lol) comics sensibilities to adjust to the writing and art styles of the 90s, but, unsurprisingly(?), I grew to appreciate and enjoy the entire 35-ish-issue run. I was sad to leave the characters and even sadder to know of the relative neglect for the Milestone universe since then
finally I am getting back to the modern Blood Syndicate reintroduction and: god it sucks the comics don't get to breathe anymore. what and who this run tries to condense into its six issues is a lot. it's admirably done and it crackles with the energy of the original (the ChrisCross art is chef's kiss), but it's just too much for so little real estate. the room to hang out with the characters and properly world-build is so key to the first run and it's sad to not see that here. and that's not on the creative team, that's on the modern model of comics
comics needs its version of "I want shorter games with worse graphics made by people who are paid more to work less and I’m not kidding."
still, grateful to have read this, to have revisited this world again, and yet again remain sad at what has been the fate of the Milestone universe since
It took some time for my forged-by-the-New-52 (lol) comics sensibilities to adjust to the writing and art styles of the 90s, but, unsurprisingly(?), I grew to appreciate and enjoy the entire 35-ish-issue run. I was sad to leave the characters and even sadder to know of the relative neglect for the Milestone universe since then
finally I am getting back to the modern Blood Syndicate reintroduction and: god it sucks the comics don't get to breathe anymore. what and who this run tries to condense into its six issues is a lot. it's admirably done and it crackles with the energy of the original (the ChrisCross art is chef's kiss), but it's just too much for so little real estate. the room to hang out with the characters and properly world-build is so key to the first run and it's sad to not see that here. and that's not on the creative team, that's on the modern model of comics
comics needs its version of "I want shorter games with worse graphics made by people who are paid more to work less and I’m not kidding."
still, grateful to have read this, to have revisited this world again, and yet again remain sad at what has been the fate of the Milestone universe since
April 6, 2023
The second best of the Milestone Returns comics after Icon & Rocket and Blood Syndicate is one of my favorite original Milestone comics, so it's great to have it back & to have the great ChrisCross drawing it again. I hope this leads to a sequel as well as a dedicated reprint of the original Ivan Velez Jr. & ChrisCross Blood Syndicate series. As another reviewer notes, this comic isn't the most accessible reintroduction of the Syndicate, but I do really like its modernized versions of Wise Son, Tech-9, Fade, & Holocaust. I haven't read anything by Geoff Thorne before, but I'm now looking forward to checking out his Green Lantern series & Star Trek novel.
May 25, 2023
Milestone Comics was one of the most audacious
moments in comic history.
Only partially eclipsed by the revolution of comic publishing houses
to successfully carve out a market aside from the Big Two ( Marvel and DC ).
Comics written by people of colour about people of colour.
Black and Latino heroes dealing with realistic
problems that come with being brown in America.
Gritty, realistic and just plain cool.
The Blood Syndicate are not the Avengers or the Justice League.
These powered characters are from the street dealing with real world problems.
This re launch of the Milestone imprint does justice to the legacy.
moments in comic history.
Only partially eclipsed by the revolution of comic publishing houses
to successfully carve out a market aside from the Big Two ( Marvel and DC ).
Comics written by people of colour about people of colour.
Black and Latino heroes dealing with realistic
problems that come with being brown in America.
Gritty, realistic and just plain cool.
The Blood Syndicate are not the Avengers or the Justice League.
These powered characters are from the street dealing with real world problems.
This re launch of the Milestone imprint does justice to the legacy.
February 11, 2025
Pretty good. The focus on self-reliance and community DIY along with the setting remind me a lot of the Chinatown community in Brian Wood's DMX comics. Holocaust was a convincing villain, and the multilingual nature of the story was true to cities.
The art by Crisscross was good, it's clear he's from New York, and Paris Island comes across clearly as a borough of the NYC equivalent Dakota City. Reminded me a bit of the art for cyberpunkdreams.
The writing overall was good. Bull, Hannibal, Wise Son having so many names was mildly confusing. Wise Son reminds me a bit of ODB's name of Ason Unique. I enjoyed the historical references to Haiti, Tortuga, and the bits of Arabic.
The art by Crisscross was good, it's clear he's from New York, and Paris Island comes across clearly as a borough of the NYC equivalent Dakota City. Reminded me a bit of the art for cyberpunkdreams.
The writing overall was good. Bull, Hannibal, Wise Son having so many names was mildly confusing. Wise Son reminds me a bit of ODB's name of Ason Unique. I enjoyed the historical references to Haiti, Tortuga, and the bits of Arabic.
February 27, 2023
The worst of the Milestone Redux books. If I hadn't read the original Blood Syndicate in the 90's I wouldn't even be sure of what was happening in this. Thankfully, it was a shorter version of the orig. The storytelling is so disjointed with no introductions to the gazillion characters in this. It's really confusing to follow. The art was pretty good. It does always aggravate me when an artist can't keep up with a 6 issue arc though and needs help for two and a half issues out of six. Still it was nice to see Chriscross return to a world he helped create the first go around.
August 14, 2025
The Syndicate
The world NEEDED heroes who were willing to GET blood on their. The Blood Syndicate came along and changed the game.
Each character played a major role. This book teased a big plot for the universe. I can't wait for Static to actually meet Icon and Rocket. How will they handle The Blood Syndicate, if they have to stand on opposite sides of a battle?
Hollocaust is one of the most ruthless villains I've encountered via the comics in a long while.
The world NEEDED heroes who were willing to GET blood on their. The Blood Syndicate came along and changed the game.
Each character played a major role. This book teased a big plot for the universe. I can't wait for Static to actually meet Icon and Rocket. How will they handle The Blood Syndicate, if they have to stand on opposite sides of a battle?
Hollocaust is one of the most ruthless villains I've encountered via the comics in a long while.
September 14, 2023
The art was good and kept me entertained. The story to be honest I had no idea what was going on. Too many characters and no proper information or introduction to them. Since I had never read the original series I was left out of a lot of stuff.
December 12, 2023
Of all the rebooted Milestone books, this is the one that offers the greatest improvement over the original. The story is clear and well-told, and the characters are well developed and much more three dimensional.
August 3, 2024
Definitely the most interesting remix/new version of the old Milestone properties I've read so far. I hope we can get a Season Two series soon
April 3, 2025
After rebooting Static, Icon and Rocket, and Hardware quite well, Blood Syndicate just has too much to fit in.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews