‘Blood Squad Seven Vol. 1: Perilous Relaunch’ TPB (review)

Written by Joe Casey 
Art by Paul Fry
Published by Image Comics

Writer Joe Casey really does write some interesting comics. Everything he touches has a unique kind of feel and charm. He can take a concept that is tried and true and each time out his own unique spin on things. He has been doing this for as long as I first remember seeing his name on a comic book credits page.

And he certainly does that again with this book.

This is a fun and interesting book that really does try for push the superhero concept rather than we have seen it before. It accomplishes a lot of what it is shooting for pretty easily and actually ends up being quite enjoyable as well.

It has been over thirty years since they were on a mission together, but Blood Squad Seven finally has one again!

They are assigned a mission that takes place in Kharkiv, Ukraine. We get to see the formation of the mission and it turns out to be a covert one. Meanwhile, back home, the person in charge of their mission is going through some stuff. Erika Richmond is their government handler and she is faced with a bunch of problems from the onset of this series.

First up for Erika is the question of how to roll out information about the team’s existence to the public at large? Is there a way to do it that won’t expose them or upset the people of America? She also has to handle some of the team members as well. They aren’t people who just bend to her will, so she definitely has to deal with that. The biggest problem she is having is that her own daughter is on the team.

Erika’s daughter is the new Infiniti.

Erika is none too pleased that her daughter decided to go the superhero route. But she cannot stop her as well. It seems like their relationship is strained as a result of this. They are in conflict with each other for most of this first volume and it looks like they will be exploring this relationship further in upcoming storylines. It is a bit boring and obvious and a bit forced but I think Casey wanted to update a lot of the characters and content from the 1990’s and basically mature them. But is that really such a good thing?

This book is an obvious take on the Youngblood dynamic. Does Youngblood really need that mature feel? Casey seems to think so and the results feel a bit stuffy. The early chapters especially feel like a bunch of talking heads and make the story feel a bit stuck.

Later chapters have a bit more action to them and that is when the book is at its best. The maturing of superheroes isn’t necessary here. Maybe if it was handled a bit better or differently it would have worked for me. But it honestly left me bored when it leaned too much in that direction.

The ending of the book was a bit stronger. A lot of the story elements came into play finally, and Casey lets his characters just be who they are without adding more layers. By the end of the book, this particular story is resolved and it is left open for other chapters to happen. I would probably read it, depending on the situation or where the story went from here. There are definitely good moments, especially in the action sequences.

Besides Erika and her daughter, you don’t really care for many of the other characters though. Maybe future chapters can introduce some newer team members for us to root for. A lot of these characters are generic and just plain weird. The back matter of the book also needs to be more fun. I appreciate that it is there but it does take itself a bit too seriously.

Joe Casey is a comic book writer who has done some amazing work over the years. I am hoping he can build on this book in future installments and make something more exciting. Paul Fry is a decent artist too and his work here is pretty good. It’s a decent enough book overall. It just has some missed opportunities for sure.

RATING: B-