Blood Syndicate is a six issue comic-book mini-series published by DC Comics as part of their Milestone Media imprint. Written by Geoffrey Thorne and featuring art by ChrissCross, it is a modern reboot of Dwayne McDuffie's Blood Syndicate.
Having just returned from a tour overseas, Hannibal White and Rolando Texador find their hometown of Dakota City mired in a gang war with superpowers thrown into the mix. Seeking to provide a safe haven for those caught in the middle, White and Texador team up with their childhood friend Carlos Quinones to form Blood Syndicate.
This series contains examples of:
- Adaptational Angst Downgrade:
- In the original comics Carlos never came out as gay and that caused him a lot of angst. However, to match changing societal values since then, the first issue shows he's open about his sexuality.
- Originally Aquamaria couldn't return to her human form, making her unable to live a normal life, but here Maria demonstrates that she can go back to her human self at will.
- In the original comics Flashback struggled with a crack addiction, but here she's clean and mostly stable.
- Adaptational Backstory Change: Originally Tech-9 and Wise Son obtained their powers during the Big Bang like most members of the Syndicate, but now they obtained their respective powers while on a military tour in the Middle East.
- Adaptational Badass: Originally Flashback's powers merely allowed her to fly and rewind time by three seconds, but here her powers are expanded so she can not just rewind time, she can also go into possible timelines and even create time duplicates, making her a borderline Time Master.
- Adaptational Modesty: Boogieman is depicted wearing a shirt when he went bare-chested in the original continuity.
- Adaptational Villainy: In the original comics Boogieman joined the Blood Syndicate since early in its inception, but here he starts out as a flunky of Holocaust.
- Adaptation Origin Connection: In the original comics Wise Son and Iron Butterfly never met, but here he met her during his military tour on the Middle East, and her words are what motivated Hannibal to convert to Islam.
- Anti-Hero Team: The Blood Syndicate aren't heroes like Icon and Rocket, but they're not in league with people like Holocaust, either.
- Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Aquamaria's costume comes with an opening for her midsection and she's a certified Spicy Latina.
- Big Bad: Holocaust, a Bang Baby with fire-based powers, has been using those talents to terrorize Dakota City.
- Brother–Sister Team: As in the original, both Carlos and his sister Sara serve on the same team.
- Calling Out for Not Calling: After managing to get Rolando to his apartment, Carlos gets chewed out by his boyfriend Silke for not calling after the firehouse got hit.
- The Cameo: When she accidentally witnesses a possible future, Flashback ends up encountering Kwai, Brickhouse, Boogieman, Third Rail and several other Milestone heroes fighting against Demon Fox and other deities.
- Cool Mask: In the original comics the members of the Syndicate didn't bother to hide their identities, but here most of them wear a mouth-covering mask.
- Cop Killer: Holocaust has no problem attacking a police station where Hannibal is being held, burning to ashes dozens of police officers.
- Covers Always Lie: The cover of the third issue features Iron Butterfly prominently. She doesn't play a role in the issue and is merely seen during a possible future by Flashback.
- Dark Mistress: Vee R. is a Bang Baby who serves as Mission Control and girlfriend for Holocaust, and she fully supports his goal of taking over Paris Island.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: Season One concludes with Holocaust being shot in the head by Tech-9, when the original Milestone continuity had Milestone Forever kill off Holocaust by having him accidentally burn himself to death trying to kill Wise Son.
- Early-Bird Cameo: During Wise Son's flashback on the second issue, Hannibal remembers how during his military tour he met a young woman who received a scar on her face and could control metal. That woman is Kahina Eskandari/Iron Butterfly, a future member of the Shadow Cabinet.
- Enemy Mine: Most members of the Blood Syndicate are survivors from different gangs who join together to take down Holocaust.
- Evil Power Vacuum: Thanks to Icon and Rocket cleaning up most of the gangs on Paris Island, Holocaust is trying to take over by killing the remaining ones and forcing the survivors into serving him.
- Family of Choice: Rolando considers his childhood friends Carlos, Sara and Hannibal as his family.
- Gayngster: Carlos is gay, and a member of the Blood Syndicate.
- Genius Bruiser: Holocaust is not only a huge man with fire powers and Super-Toughness, he also came up with a pretty intelligent strategy to incapacitate Rocket and Icon and force them to retreat.
- HA HA HA—No: When Rolando suggests to his friends they could ask the police for help in finding the missing people, Fade, Silke and Aquamaria burst out laughing and remind him that they either do things themselves or don't do anything at all.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Tech-9 executes Holocaust while he's in the middle of ranting and swearing revenge.
- Male Gaze: Sara Quinones' introduction has some focus on her hips and butt.
- Master of Threads: Silke, Fade's boyfriend, is a Bang Baby who can control threads and use them to create some pretty good looking outfits for the members of the Syndicate.
- Motor Mouth: When surprised or nervous, Sara speaks a lot and very fast.
- Mundane Utility: Among the ways Carlos uses his powers is to make his clothes intangible so that dirt and grime never stick to them. He muses it saves him a lot of money on dry-cleaning.
- Mythology Gag: The fifth issue of Season One is titled "My Name Is..." in reference to Holocaust's miniseries My Name is Holocaust.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Bang Babies supporting Holocaust; Vee R., Perdita, Ligero, Bubbasaurus, Boogieman and Rebar.
- Poisonous Person: Perdita is a Bang Baby working for Holocaust who's capable of turning into poisonous air, and she's effective enough to incapacitate Icon.
- Power Glows: Unlike the original comics where he only grew in size, when using his powers, Pui Chung/Third Rail's body glows electric blue, but he still grows in size.
- Spicy Latina: Despite having water-based powers, Aquamaria is still hot-blooded and peppers her speech with Gratuitous Spanish.
- Spontaneous Weapon Creation: Tech-9's power allows him to manifest futuristic guns out of thin air.
- Straight Gay: Carlos is gay, and makes no secret of this fact, but, living as he does in a gang-ridden area, he avoids being campy. This is in sharp contrast to his boyfriend Silke, who is more flamboyant.
- Take Over the City: Holocaust wants to take over all of Paris Island, getting rid of both gangs and law enforcement so he's the one in charge.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Like in the original comic, Trevor/Masquerade's power allows him to change shape at will, demonstrated by turning into a red skinned creature that resembles a dragon with Combat Tentacles.
