Marvel Comics asks the simple question in Blood Hunt #1 — who will bite it?
Before cracking the first issue open, you may think that this question is just a fun catchphrase Marvel marketing came up with to promote this event series about a worldwide vampire invasion.
However, as you dive deeper into fast-paced issue, you begin to realize this question isn’t a cutesy turn of phrase, it’s an actual, frank, and sobering question. Who is going to bite it — because this isn’t your everyday vampire arc.
We’ve seen vampires throughout Marvel’s history — whether it’s Blade and his daughter Bloodline, Dr. Michael Morbius, or even Dracula himself — vampires have been around these pages for a long time. However, this time it seems a little different.
In the Blood Hunt Free Comic Book Day Issue (a split issue that features a great preview of X-Men’s summer run) we see Blade’s daughter given a “come with me if you want to live” request by Dracula — now the political leader of a nation of vampires. Pretty wild. Immediately following this The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and the Avengers are discovering dark force wielding heroes and villains alike stuck in a suspended state as their dark energy is sucked from their bodies causing a worldwide blackout.
This all works its way into a massive invasion by an unyielding wave of vampires, who through the artwork Pepe Larraz and Marte Gracia, come off as this frighteningly feral horde hellbent on the mass extinction of the living. Everything about these vampires eschews from the traditional “I want to suck your blood” baddies of the days of old or even the high gloss vampiric villains like Deacon Frost from Blade. These vampires seem like a threat not just to humanity, but all of the heroes of earth. The way vampires are treated as a real threat is not unlike in zombie films where the undead that can run are way more of a visceral threat than than your typical shuffle and moan zombies.
Blood Hunt #1 does the usual Marvel event series thing where all the heroes in the Marvel Universe gather to fight off the villain. However, this time around things different — not just because the vampire feel like more of a threat, it’s more because the vampires have assembled their own super-powered team of vampires who go toe-to-toe with The Avengers (consisting here of Sam Wilson/Captain America, Black Panther, Vision, Captain Marvel, Thor and The Scarlet Witch). This fight scene is way more visceral and jarring than you’d expect (although it is the beginning of a series, so maybe a more season reader will expect it).
However, what you will not expect is the ending of Blood Hunt #1. A twist comes through that literally left this writer with his jaw agape and absolutely furious that this twist came at the final page. (To be fair, the anger came because it was so good and I was hoping to read further). It’s such a good twist because it’s such a left-field turn that you’re not expecting, but yet at the same time it’s such a great call by writer Jed McKay to have it happen.
Blood Hunt #1 is a great introduction to a new Marvel event series — and I cannot wait to grab every book tied into the series.
Blood Hunt #1 is now available at your local comic book shop.
Editor’s Note: Blood Hunt will be a five-issue series that will run until July. The story will continue in the following issues:
- Blood Hunters #1-4
- Dracula: Blood Hunt #1-3
- Strange Academy: Blood Hunt #1-3
- The Amazing Spider-Man: Blood Hunt #1-3
- Midnight Sons: Blood Hunt #1-3
- Wolverine: Blood Hunt #1-4
- Hulk: Blood Hunt
- Werewolf by Night: Blood Hunt
- X-Men: Blood Hunt — Jubilee
- X-Men: Blood Hunt — Psylocke
- X-Men: Blood Hunt — Laura Kinney the Wolverine
- Vengeance of Moon Knight #5-7
- The Amazing Spider-Man #49
- The Avengers #14-16
- Doctor Strange #15-17
- Venom #33-34
- The Fantastic Four #21-22
- Miles Morales: Spider-Man #21-22
