Bloodbath #1

[pyrotwilight]

The Bloodlines have ended. The heroes of the DCU are now finally able to assemble against the Parasite threat, but will it be enough? Or will it be the fall of Earth?

18 pages of a 56 page story.

I have to also warn you that while the art of the Annuals each had specific teams who were used to the books they were on...  but the artists who worked on Bloodbath varied, and the art seemed very rushed at times. (Including having a page that I won't post with Martian Manhunter on it that hurts my eyes)

 

The issue opens with a very basic rundown of the Bloodlines event. Parasites have come for our spinal fluid, the heroes haven't been able to stop them and so on.



Wwe see the Parasites slaughtering folks at a supermarket, laughing about how the humans are so weak, save for some of their heroes. They joke about how  stupid Angon is for wanting to attack them head on. "We should not feed on them when they are mighty..."

 

And so Amanda Waller brings together virtually ever DCU hero at the time. (Justice Leagues, New Titans, Team Titans etc...) with the majority being those who the New Bloods teamed up with in their annuals.

 

And the guy on the top right near as I can tell is Tazmanian Devil but miscolored brown (wasn't he a purpleish hue?) which constantly made me think he was Sparx's Uncle Harry helping out. 

But the Parasites have begun their endgame. Remember Slodd who Lobo killed? (Yeah me neither)

 

The Parasites however realize that since their plan is  so near to completion they must remain hidden. Glonth ever the glutton however decides to go attack a bunch of folks on a plane and the JLA scrambles quickly to fight him.



So the folks take him to their place to try interrogating him to no avail. The heroes have gotten desperate to find where the aliens homebase is even though they know it's near Metropolis. Sadly they can't extract the information, he's immune to being read by telepaths like Martian Manhunter and Bloodwynd.

 

Pritor states he's too weak and asks Glonth to remind him where their ship is so he can take them to it. Glonth reminds him its the Swamp of Metropolis.

 

But "Pritor" was J'onn tricking Glonth. Nice job on it too!

After a quick search they locate the now surprisingly obvious ship.



However the Parasites have seen what was up with Glonth and waited until the heroes went to the ship so that they could free Glonth. And the group of three (not counting Glonth) attack and easily overpower Eradicator continuing his regular use in DC events as a target.



Probably my favorite page from this issue. Redwing meets Batman and Robin! Kinda. 

A seperate big hitting group runs into Venev in part of the ship (the teams have gone into various directions with the real heavy hitters like Superman and Powergirl waiting in reserve to see which group will need more help)



"Demons. Give me the creeps." Said the vampire. And yes, lots of the DC public were worried at first that the New Bloods while empowered by the Parasites also worked for them for a short while. (And I guess the other heroes didn't have time to swap stories about their New Blood meetings)

Wonderwoman's group finds an empty vat, where spinal fluid was kept and the folks decide to burn it. 



Meanwhile Batman's group which is made up of almost entirely powerless folks gets attacked. 



(That they would lie in wait until the Parasites spotted the easier prey to attack) 

Now all the groups get into their own encounters with the Parasites who flee instead of battling. 



 

All the Parasites jump down into the vat apparently committing suicide. (Rather anticlimactic I'll say. I would've wanted them to be fought individually and defeated.) Suddenly tentacles erupt from the vat and the Taker rises.



 



Powergirl, Starfire and Wonderwoman battling tentacles. Ah, good times. 

Still the heroes realize something odd is happening and they're not fighting as well as they could be. Superman realizes everyone's being affected by a psychic drain the Taker is giving off which is getting stronger and stronger and the heroes are quickly being overpowered and outnumbered by the Takers tentacles.

 

And the issue ends with a very conflicted Superman escaping from the Taker. The only other hero still running around is the Flash who Waller had sent to do reconnaissance.  

How will our heroes escape this? Tune in next week!                                                                                                             

Comments

[shanejayell]

*sigh*

OBVIOUSLY the New Bloods are immune and come rushing in to save everybody.

Who wrote this? I have a slap for unoriginality in my pocket with their name on it.

[pyrotwilight]

It's a little more complicated than that but sorta.

[q99]

Whoa, the Parasites all jumped in? That is kinda disappointing, I had gotten a feel for them by this point.

[pyrotwilight]

Yeah, it was a shame and easily the biggest mistep to me, though on the other hand it's genuinely surprising. Though I suppose one could always fanwank it that after the Taker rose he made more of them or that they were digested but regenerated somehow. *shrug*

[q99]

It's surprising but not necessarily the good kind of surprising.

[pyrotwilight]

Yeah, I'm guessing about the midpoint of the series the DC higherups realized the Parasites were getting more page time than the actual New Bloods and were making them likeable (though evil). Which you can sorta see since alot of the last of the Annuals were much less focused on the Parasites.

[q99]

Personally I'd call that a good thing, in that a strong villain enriches both sides.

You could have cool showdowns where New Bloods fought the specific Parasites that made them, full of drama and action. Going after the Parasite's spawn loses some of that sense of drama.

[frostedone]

It looks like they are fighting Xenomorphs from the Alien series!

Only tangentially on the topic of these scans...

[kamino_neko]

I'm kind of surprised the current Green Lantern stuff hasn't referenced the fact that Guy was using Sinestro's ring for a while...

Re: Only tangentially on the topic of these scans...

[shanejayell]

It gets mentioned every now and then. During Sinestro Corps War Hal ends up grabbing some yellow rings and Guy comments that the ring only made him 'a bit more aggressive.'

It bugs me...

[ogrebear]

Thing with the New Bloods is that while some of them where a bit crap in origin or powers none of them seemed totally worthless (given half a chance and a decent writer/artist) and did not deserve the slating and worthless deaths most of them have gone through esp since a lot of them could have bolstered the non white Supers population in the DCU.

Some of them have powers better than established Heroes who 'just survive' major events/villains but the New Bloods are fine to get killed off - is there some sort of embarrassment at DC about this Crossover?

Re: It bugs me...

[strannik01]

Probably. Geoff Jones doesn't particularly care for this era, and you'll notice that most New Blood death happened in comics he wrote.

[halloweenjack]

Gah, the art--at first I thought that Amanda Waller was Harvey Bullock with a really deep tan.

And I don't see him here, so he's probably not involved, but I had a great mental picture of Tommy Monaghan showing up with a sniper rifle with an atomic bullet--"Boom, headshot! No need to thank me, just buy me a beer."

[pyrotwilight]

Hitman shows up for the next issue of Bloodbath like nearly every New Blood.

[halloweenjack]

boom... headshot?

[silverzeo]

Huh, so all the parasites are gone and dead with no refrence too them... I know the 90s weren't a good time with all that promotional tripe but some good did came from there... has anyone made any jokes about how the 90s didn't seem to happen at all...

[pyrotwilight]

"Huh, so all the parasites are gone and dead with no refrence too them..."

Heh, keep watching, that's kinda true but not completely.