Strikeforce #1 starts off with the Avengers apprehending the culprits that took vials that contained dangerous diseases from a facility. The culprits were; Spider-Woman, The Winter Soldier, Spectrum, Angela, and Wiccan. Spectrum and the rest don’t know how they ended up at the facility, to begin with, or what’s going on, but someone might, Blade. Blade takes them to Indonesia because he used a sample from a shape-shifter he killed from his past, which he believes is causing the dilemma. Angela realized that the shape-shifters are Vridai after encountering a doom clone.
While walking to the temple where the Vridai stay, Angela explains to Blade that the Vridai came to be because of the broken bridge and Blade mentions the Black Bifrost, which was destroyed by Freyja. Both Blade and Angela were ambushed by the Vridai, but it wasn’t a problem because the rest of the team came to help! After defeating the Vridai, the team they met the Serpent Prince, who is in control of the Vridai on earth. Blade tries to go in for the kill but was knocked back by a forcefield.
The rest of the team starts attacking the barrier and one surprise that shocked Blade was Daimon Hellstorm. Blade didn’t know if Daimon was a shape-shifter or not, so he stabs him in the middle of the chest who is presumed dead. Santana, who is Daimon’s sister, contacts Blade to tell him that Daimon showed up to a party and is acting weird, which leaves Blade in shock. And that’s the end of the issue.
Tini Howard’s Strikeforce #1 was a strong start for the series. This is also probably one of my favorite team setups, especially since it consists of so many badass people like Angela, Bucky, Monica, etc. I like the different approach for a shape-shifter storyline since it has been done many times before. This was a really good issue, loaded with content, and I look forward to seeing where the story can go.
