AGE OF BLOOD

Ochse (Seal Team 666, 2012) offers Volume 2 chronicling the demon-hunting SEAL warrior team.

In this saga, the paranormal-pursuit SEAL team heads to Mexico to battle the usual suspects: demons, werewolves and homunculi. SEAL Team 666’s mission is to rescue Emily Withers, the kidnapped daughter of a U.S. senator. Spinning his tale in short, cinematic chapters, Ochse employs characters direct from central casting. There’s Holmes, the rugged, handsome officer in charge; Laws, wise-guy intellectual; Walker, dedicated, sometimes-conflicted sniper; Yank, an African-American from Compton, scared straight; and YaYa, Middle Eastern in heritage but patriotic to the core. There’s even a hint of romance, with Walker being paired up with an attractive covert analyst. The main event comes when Team 666 confronts the Zeta drug cartel and an ancient Aztec cult whose members dress in the skins of the dead. Ochse laces the narrative with more acronyms than he defines, lists weapons exotic and prosaic, and splashes enough blood to satisfy fans of exploding heads. The action moves from New Orleans to California and then to Mexico City, but Ochse doesn’t rely on setting. His modus operandi is demonology—and bloodletting. The prime bad guy, his motivation unclear, is white-suited Ramon, werewolf and former Zeta assassin. The original kidnapping is a trick to lure the senator to Mexico, where he too is kidnapped, the snatch pulled off by a Team 666 member infected by an otherworldly presence during a previous mission, now gone rogue at the demon’s behest. The final battle takes place in ancient excavations beneath Mexico City. The good guys knife, shoot and explode Zeta gunmen, chupacabra, giant albino snakes and 7-foot obsidian butterflies called chacmools.

Ochse has hit on a new subgenre: military special ops battling supernatural enemies. Gore ensues.