Interview: Fred Van Lente is Ready for Battle in New 'Jennifer Blood'
Dec 05, 2023
Interview by Nicki Faust
Following the grisly events of Bloodlines, the woman formerly known as Jessica Blute - a.k.a. Jen Fellows, a.k.a. Jennifer Blood - finds herself involved with a new class of criminals. This one-woman bane of organized crime is supposedly dead and buried, and that's exactly what she wants the world to think. Now, however, a visit to her original penitentiary gravesite puts Blood in the crosshairs of a vicious prison gang - one that has no idea of what's about to hit them!
In the following interview, Jennifer Blood: Battle Diary writer Fred Van Lente (Marvel Zombies) tells us more!
Fred, we’re readying up our official declassification of Jennifer Blood’s next adventures. This series will mark a milestone, hitting 20 issues of you chronicling the world of J. Blood across her stories, Ninjettes, and the Giulietta Romeo special. What keeps bringing you back to these characters?
Jennifer Blood is a primal force of chaos; she makes Frank Castle look sane and reasonable. I should know, I’ve written him too! She’s a vigilante who cares more about killing any criminal she happens to come across than her own life. As a character she’s a live hand grenade you just lob in the middle of any situation and it instantly becomes dramatic. It’s hard not to get the blood pumping when you have such a limitless possibility of stories like that. I’m just thrilled the readers are responding too, and keep us coming back out for encores. What’s not to love?
For those who want to jump straight into Battle Diary, can you give us a quick catch-up of what Jennifer has been up to recently? Maybe she’s even presumed dead we hear...
So — SPOILER ALERT for “Bloodlines,” our first story of this new era — the original Jennifer Blood, vengeful Mafia princess Jessica Blute, was killed in prison at the end of her original series. The mantle was taken up by her daughter, Alice, an elementary schooler in the original run, who is now all grown up and processed her rough childhood growing up among often uncaring and abusive foster homes by resurrecting her mother’s mantle as terror of the underworld. Except the first Jennifer Blood was very much in it for revenge on her uncles for ruining her parents’ lives. Jennifer Blood 2 is much more ecumenical, infiltrating and wiping out whole enclaves of criminals just because that’s how she’s decided to spend her life.
I guess you could say she’s out for revenge against the world itself, and criminals are the unlucky beneficiaries of her attention because she sees them as representing an almost impossibly corrupt society — there’s no way you can fix it without the most extreme measures, and “Extreme Measures” is Jennifer Blood’s middle name.
We wanted to ask about that unique subtitle. Where does the title of Battle Diary come from and how could that possibly play into the narrative for this series?
Alice/Jennifer has reached a crossroads in her career; not really a mid-life crisis, but after taking out the all-mobster town of Bountiful and helping the hit man Angel get revenge on the Vegas mobs, she’s at a loss as to what her next target should be. Like Sherlock Holmes, she becomes listless and depressed when not actively hunting down scumbags. So to help, she’s started a diary like her mother had, and that narration is one of the main throughlines of this new series.
She even goes so far as to visit her mother’s grave outside the prison where she was killed. And sure enough, within the first few pages of Battle Diary #1, she discovers a convict trying to crawl her way out of a grave as part of an escape — and Jennifer Blood is off to the races yet again with a new criminal cartel of scumbags to deal with.
Jennifer is taking on some really unique foes this time around. We’ve known her to take down the mafia recently. Who’s in her targets this time? She might even find herself stuck in the middle at a point!
The Mafia, Mexican drug cartels — now it’s America’s neo-Nazi gangs who are about to feel Jennifer Blood’s wrath. A seeming case of mistaken identity leads Jennifer to delivering an escaped killer to the Volk, a murderous white supremacist gang who wants to hire Blood — not knowing who she really is, naturally — to take out a meddlesome prison guard. Blood accepts the contract, knowing fully well it’s the bait she’s going to use to trap the Volk — and set them up for a death match with a rival Nazi gang, the Crooked Cross. Jennifer plays both sides, setting the two gangs against each other, a dangerous game with only one assured outcome.
That’s right. It’s blood.
Basically, the point of “Battle Diary” is JENNIFER BLOOD KILLS NAZIS, LOTS AND LOTS OF NAZIS, we need that in all-caps, if possible, heh.
Robert Carey is taking on the art for this series, following working with you on the aforementioned Giulietta Romeo Hitwoman special that flowed out of Jennifer Blood. How excited are you to reunite that squad and what is he bringing to the table on the new book?
Robert is great. He crushed it on Giulietta and people are going to be blown away by what he does here. I was so thrilled when he got his DC Outsiders gig, between Jennifer Blood and that he’s going to be a huge star, and now you get to get on board his art at the very start, you lucky dogs.
Jennifer Blood: Battle Diary is available now at your local comic shop. Reserve your copy now using PREVIEWSworld Pullbox or at your local comic shop. More below.
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Following the grisly events of Bloodlines, the woman formerly known as Jessica Blute - a.k.a. Jen Fellows, a.k.a. Jennifer Blood - finds herself involved with a new class of criminals. This one-woman bane of organized crime is supposedly dead and buried, and that's exactly what she wants the world to think. Now, however, a visit to her original penitentiary gravesite puts Blood in the crosshairs of a vicious prison gang - one that has no idea of what's about to hit them!
Written by FRED VAN LENTE (Marvel Zombies) and illustrated by ROBERT CAREY (The Outsiders), Jennifer Blood: Battle Diary #1 also features killer covers from artists JOSEPH MICHAEL LINSNER, LESLEY "LEIRIX" LI, and REBECA PUEBLA!
Following the grisly events of Bloodlines, the woman formerly known as Jessica Blute - a.k.a. Jen Fellows, a.k.a. Jennifer Blood - finds herself involved with a new class of criminals. This one-woman bane of organized crime is supposedly dead and buried, and that's exactly what she wants the world to think. Now, however, a visit to her original penitentiary gravesite puts Blood in the crosshairs of a vicious prison gang - one that has no idea of what's about to hit them!
Written by FRED VAN LENTE (Marvel Zombies) and illustrated by ROBERT CAREY (The Outsiders), Jennifer Blood: Battle Diary #1 also features killer covers from artists JOSEPH MICHAEL LINSNER, LESLEY "LEIRIX" LI, and REBECA PUEBLA!
Following the grisly events of Bloodlines, the woman formerly known as Jessica Blute - a.k.a. Jen Fellows, a.k.a. Jennifer Blood - finds herself involved with a new class of criminals. This one-woman bane of organized crime is supposedly dead and buried, and that's exactly what she wants the world to think. Now, however, a visit to her original penitentiary gravesite puts Blood in the crosshairs of a vicious prison gang - one that has no idea of what's about to hit them!
Written by FRED VAN LENTE (Marvel Zombies) and illustrated by ROBERT CAREY (The Outsiders), Jennifer Blood: Battle Diary #1 also features killer covers from artists JOSEPH MICHAEL LINSNER, LESLEY "LEIRIX" LI, and REBECA PUEBLA!
Following the grisly events of Bloodlines, the woman formerly known as Jessica Blute - a.k.a. Jen Fellows, a.k.a. Jennifer Blood - finds herself involved with a new class of criminals. This one-woman bane of organized crime is supposedly dead and buried, and that's exactly what she wants the world to think. Now, however, a visit to her original penitentiary gravesite puts Blood in the crosshairs of a vicious prison gang - one that has no idea of what's about to hit them!
Written by FRED VAN LENTE (Marvel Zombies) and illustrated by ROBERT CAREY (The Outsiders), Jennifer Blood: Battle Diary #1 also features killer covers from artists JOSEPH MICHAEL LINSNER, LESLEY "LEIRIX" LI, and REBECA PUEBLA!
Outlaw author FRED VAN LENTE (Marvel Zombies) and renegade illustrator ROBERT CAREY (The Outsiders) conspire with recidivist cover artists JOSEPH MICHAEL LINSNER, LESLEY "LEIRIX" LI, and REBECA PUEBLA to bring you Jennifer Blood: Battle Diary #2 - a story so good it's got to be illegal!
Outlaw author FRED VAN LENTE (Marvel Zombies) and renegade illustrator ROBERT CAREY (The Outsiders) conspire with recidivist cover artists JOSEPH MICHAEL LINSNER, LESLEY "LEIRIX" LI, and REBECA PUEBLA to bring you Jennifer Blood: Battle Diary #2 - a story so good it's got to be illegal!
Outlaw author FRED VAN LENTE (Marvel Zombies) and renegade illustrator ROBERT CAREY (The Outsiders) conspire with recidivist cover artists JOSEPH MICHAEL LINSNER, LESLEY "LEIRIX" LI, and REBECA PUEBLA to bring you Jennifer Blood: Battle Diary #2 - a story so good it's got to be illegal!
Court reporter FRED VAN LENTE (Marvel Zombies) and sketch artist ROBERT CAREY (The Outsiders) bring you the official transcript of the ensuing mayhem in Jennifer Blood: Battle Diary #3 - embellished with artfully arranged mugshots from CAREY, JOSEPH MICHAEL LINSNER, and LESLEY "LEIRIX" LI!
Court reporter FRED VAN LENTE (Marvel Zombies) and sketch artist ROBERT CAREY (The Outsiders) bring you the official transcript of the ensuing mayhem in Jennifer Blood: Battle Diary #3 - embellished with artfully arranged mugshots from CAREY, JOSEPH MICHAEL LINSNER, and LESLEY "LEIRIX" LI!
Court reporter FRED VAN LENTE (Marvel Zombies) and sketch artist ROBERT CAREY (The Outsiders) bring you the official transcript of the ensuing mayhem in Jennifer Blood: Battle Diary #3 - embellished with artfully arranged mugshots from CAREY, JOSEPH MICHAEL LINSNER, and LESLEY "LEIRIX" LI!
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Jennifer Blood TM & © 2023 Dynamite & Spitfire Productions, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. All cover art pending licensor approval.
Nicki Faust's heart is as cold as concrete in the Chicago winter. When not writing for PREVIEWSworld, Nicki is busy playing Limbo on Twitch, writing about the great robot uprising on Medium, and completing the untitled follow-up to the 2012 best-seller, Sue Storm: A Nude Photobook.
