When invasive monsters threatens Earth, a team of monster hunters forms out of necessity to combat the dark forces. Their operation is covert and their members even more so, striking with stealth. They are Strikeforce!
Covert Team
When a secret threat begins to take over planet Earth, half-man half-vampire monster hunter Eric Brooks, AKA Blade, recognizes the signs from a previous encounter he’d had with the threat—the threat is known as the Vridai, plant-based shape-shifters and knowledge of them is itself a poison. Fearing it would spread like wildfire, he keeps it from the Avengers to protect everyone on Earth, and recruits a team of heroes accustomed to darkness—a Strikeforce.
Head-Butting Heroes
Blade recruits the electromagnetically empowered Monica Rambeau, AKA Spectrum, the magical mystic Billy Kaplan, AKA Wiccan, the high-flying Super Hero Jessica Drew, AKA Spider-Woman, brainwashed Russian spy turned hero Bucky Barnes, AKA Winter Soldier, the Asgardian princess stolen from the cradle, raised as an angelic assassin Aldrif Odinsdottir, AKA Angela, and the half-human son of Satan Daimon Hellstrom, AKA Hellstrom.
While Blade leads the team, like any boss he sometimes makes decisions without the team’s full buy-in. He and Angela butt heads somewhat but the rest of the group seems to work together well enough, having each other’s backs and adding their respective abilities and value to the team.
Strange Allies and Stranger Foes
Strikeforce allies with Count Ophidian of the Vridai to help him find a home for his people though his advisor Birgit demands to take root on Earth and spread their spores, infecting the planet. In going against Birgit they also face the aftermath of the War of the Realms, started by the Dark Elf Malekith, in the form of Malekith’s forces—a splintered group of Dark Elves who are pro- and anti-Malekith.
Mission Report
Tracking the Vridai to Indonesia, Blade’s makeshift team confronted the shape-shifters’ ruler, Count Ophidian, but they found out later that he was an imposter. It wasn’t the only time Strikeforce was fooled by the Vridai who have the power to change their outward appearance to look like anyone or anything. Blade thought they mimicked Daimon Hellstrom and in killing what he thought was a fake, he accidentally killed the real Daimon. Daimon’s sister Satana helped revive him through necromantic favors and in the process, Wiccan was captured by Birgit, the right hand to the Fae ruler Count Ophidian.
Wiccan discovered that the Vridai had kidnapped a Doombot, believing it to be Victor von Doom, AKA Doctor Doom. Wiccan magically controlled the bot to kill Count Ophidian and Birgit escaped. The Strikeforce team reunited only to realize that Ophidian wasn’t dead at all, discovering the real one hidden captured and unconscious in temple walls thanks to Spectrum sensing their energy. Hellstrom had a strange vision about the Count’s unhappy childhood while the Count remained unconscious. Meanwhile Spectrum started having strange energy-infused seizures apparently linked to an illegal experiment called the Aaru Project. Strikeforce left Daimon and Wiccan behind with the unconscious Count, the team tracked the energy to a hospital in the middle of nowhere and full of ghosts. There they came upon the Super Villain Ghost who lured the team there at the behest of the crazy former psychologist Karla Sofen, AKA Moonstone! Sofen desired to use Spectrum’s powers to stabilize her experiment and stage one involved raising the dead.
Meanwhile, Wiccan noticed the Count wasn’t breathing and touched him and in doing so, he promptly disintegrated. Wiccan surmised that because the plant-based Vridai were mushroom-like and the form formerly in front of them was a defense mechanism, and he snuck away. Tracking him down, the Count revealed that the Vridai are homeless with nowhere to go after the War of the Realms destroyed their realm of Svartalfheim.
Strikeforce agreed to help the Count find a new home for him and his people and established a temporary base on Monster Island with the reluctant approval from Wade Wilson, AKA Deadpool, now King Deadpool. Though the team was followed by Birgit and she threatened to release hundreds of Vridai spores on Earth. Blade brokered a deal with her to hand over the Count in exchange for the Vridai’s disappearance. They followed Birgit through the portal and ended up in between Dark Elf forces.
The team got separated and spent a while regrouping decided to go to the place of the Black Bifrost’s destruction as the Vridai were using its remains to travel to Midgard. Blade and Hellstrom decided to hang back in case they were followed. Hellstrom opened a portal for the rest of the team to travel a few miles out from the Black Bifrost location. They came face to face with pro-Malekith forces and Angela attempted to negotiate terms with them to visit the Bifrost. They required her to pay a price by enduring their Thoughtfeeder device which would tell them her true intentions, but she refused and Winter Soldier shot it several times, destroying it. As such, the elves demanded he stay behind and work off the cost of the property he damaged. Monica stayed with him as well. Upon arriving at the remains of the Black Bifrost, they found a wall but were transported to Hel by Queens Hela and Karnilla who demanded a trade, to hold Spider-Woman and Wiccan in Hel while permitting Angela to explore the Bifrost. She reluctantly agreed and returned to the Bifrost only to be confronted by her mother and Asgard’s All-Mother Freyja, who destroyed the Bifrost in the first place and instructed Hela and Karnilla to kill anyone who tampered with its remains. Freyja disappeared and with Wiccan and Spider-Woman returned to the Bifrost, Blade, Winter Soldier, and Hellstrom also appeared fighting back the remaining Dark Elf forces. Just then, the Bifrost opened and out came Birgit who appeared as part spider with Ophidian trapped in webbing. Angela demanded Birgit release the boy but she refused, claiming the Vridai deserved expansion. Angela fought her back with Wiccan rescued Ophidian and Strikeforce departed through one of Hellstrom’s portals back to Monster Island.
