Blade is the new sheriff of Chernobyl

Dracula lives in Chernobyl right now. I mentioned it last week, but I’ll recap: the Lord of the Vampires recently manipulated the Ukrainian government into giving him sovereignty over the greater Chernobyl area in Marvel Comics. He lives there now with hordes of bloodsuckers. And in this week’s Avengers #45, he petitioned the nations of the world for sovereignty.

Marvel Comics has a vampire nation now, and its leaders are demanding Blade’s head on a pike. You can imagine that Blade feels a certain way about that, but the Avengers have a clever, Old-West-style solution.

What else is happening in the pages of our favorite comics? We’ll tell you. Welcome to Monday Funnies, Polygon’s weekly list of the books that our comics editor enjoyed this past week. It’s part society pages of superhero lives, part reading recommendations, part “look at this cool art.” There may be some spoilers. There may not be enough context. But there will be great comics. (And if you missed the last edition, read this.)

The Avengers #45

Image: Jason Aaron, Luca Maresca/Marvel Comics

Fortunately, before Blade can walk out on the Avengers entirely — and even leave his adorable wooden-stake making friend Boy-Thing behind — Black Panther finds a solution very much to Blade’s liking. Obey the letter of Dracula’s demands by handing Blade over to the new vampire nation, but the spirit of Blade’s own interests by appointing him a UN lawman over vampire territory.

The real question here is: As a new global leader, is Dracula getting an invite to the Hellfire gala, and if so, what is he going to wear?

Way of X #1

Image: Si Spurrier, Bob Quinn/Marvel Comics

And speaking of Marvel’s merry mutants, the X-Men umbrella got a new ... whatever it is that goes under umbrellas, with Way of X, a series all about the dark side of Krakoa that so many fans have been worried about since ... since they first found out about Krakoa.

Oh, also, Legion is back.

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr #1

Image: Ram V, Filipe Andrade/Boom Studios

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr is a new series that’s already drawing comparisons to The Sandman in its depiction of the modern lives of Hindu deities, as Death meets her own death. But the real star of its first issue is Filipe Andrade’s art (with assistance from Inês Amaro). I’ll be keeping an eye on this one for certain.

Nightwing #79

Image: Tom Taylor, Bruno Redondo/DC Comics

I’m not sure if this is the first time that the Batfamily has been portrayed as having a group chat, but still. The Batfamily has a group chat.

The Mighty Valkyries #1

Image: Torunn Grønbekk, Erica D’Urso/Marvel Comics

It’s good to see Jane Foster back in The Mighty Valkyries, and in what looks to be a Loki team-up, no less. But the new series backup is all about the mysterious unnamed valkyrie who looks just like the one from the movies, and now we know her name, lost for thousands of years: Rüna.

Old Guard: Tales Through Time #1

Image: Andrew Wheeler, Jacopo Camagni/Image Comics

This is just to let you know that that The Old Guard anthology series? Yep, you can start picking it up now, for stories like Joe and Nicky on a date in just-pre-WWII Berlin.

Captain Marvel #28

Image: Kelly Thompson, Jacopo Camagni/Marvel Comics

This is a Doctor Strange’s pot-full-of-catty-snakes appreciation post. I don’t know where or when they were introduced, but I like them whenever they show up.