Author: Jed MacKay
Artists: Pepe Larraz & Sara Pichelli
Release date: 2024 (tpb)
Contains spoilers
The Blurb: Collects Blood Hunt #1-5 And Material From Free Comic Book Day 2024: Blood Hunt/X-Men.
Superheroes vs. vampires in the bloodiest Marvel event ever! The skies have gone dark, the sun hiding its face from the carnage to come. The children of the night, the vampires, have risen from the dark and hidden places of the world as one to drown the Marvel Universe in blood. Earth's final night has fallen. Can its greatest heroes stem the tide of blood? The broken Avengers join the fighters of the Midnight Mission and unlikely allies Bloodline and Dracula in seeking out the one man who can do something about this: Doctor Strange. But in the wake of these apocalyptic events, what is left of Earth's Sorcerer Supreme? And even if the world can be saved, how will it be changed?
The review: Sort of coming on the heels of DC Vs Vampires this is a marvel crossover event and, unlike the DC event, where the comic crossovers were collated in logical volumes, I was kind of confused as to where they fell in the Marvel releases. Eventually I decided to read them in release order and this was the first collected volume. This tracks the course of sun-death as darkforce users start exploding and becoming portals to allow the darkforce dimension into Earth’s dimension, turning the skies black in an event called sundeath.
This is deliberate and vampires attack across the globe. An elite superpowered vampire task force manage to outmatch the Avengers, causing Thor and Scarlet Witch to be captured and Black Panther to be turned. Miles Morales is, we eventually discover, turned and Dr Strange is attacked and his body turned as his spirit roams free. All of this happens because they trust Blade and Blade is behind the event. The revealing that the head vampire is a beloved superhero is somewhat like DC Vs Vampires but where DC held the identity to the climax of the first volume, this reveal comes in pretty darn quick in this volume. It turns out that Blade is possessed by the spirit of the First Vampire, Varnae (a recurring Marvel character over the years).
What is interesting is the primary crisis is averted by the end of the volume (sun returns, not a major spoiler as the real spoiler would be to tell you how and by whom) unlike the DC volume, which has more volumes to come but was pretty downbeat in its story, but there are many more crossover volumes in this series too (ten more at current count) and currently sight unseen I assume they tell stories within the event (and perhaps beyond the event too). I will start bringing those to TMtV as I read them. As for this, perhaps the vast array of characters might prove confusing (and my background is far more DC than Marvel) but it held together well as a story and if parts felt rushed or glossed over I suspect it is because I’ll find those stories in more detail in the further volumes. Nevertheless, superheroes and vampires (and yes Dracula makes an appearance) have to be good. 7.5 out of 10.
In Paperback @ Amazon US
In Paperback @ Amazon UK
The Blurb: Collects Blood Hunt #1-5 And Material From Free Comic Book Day 2024: Blood Hunt/X-Men.
Superheroes vs. vampires in the bloodiest Marvel event ever! The skies have gone dark, the sun hiding its face from the carnage to come. The children of the night, the vampires, have risen from the dark and hidden places of the world as one to drown the Marvel Universe in blood. Earth's final night has fallen. Can its greatest heroes stem the tide of blood? The broken Avengers join the fighters of the Midnight Mission and unlikely allies Bloodline and Dracula in seeking out the one man who can do something about this: Doctor Strange. But in the wake of these apocalyptic events, what is left of Earth's Sorcerer Supreme? And even if the world can be saved, how will it be changed?
The review: Sort of coming on the heels of DC Vs Vampires this is a marvel crossover event and, unlike the DC event, where the comic crossovers were collated in logical volumes, I was kind of confused as to where they fell in the Marvel releases. Eventually I decided to read them in release order and this was the first collected volume. This tracks the course of sun-death as darkforce users start exploding and becoming portals to allow the darkforce dimension into Earth’s dimension, turning the skies black in an event called sundeath.
This is deliberate and vampires attack across the globe. An elite superpowered vampire task force manage to outmatch the Avengers, causing Thor and Scarlet Witch to be captured and Black Panther to be turned. Miles Morales is, we eventually discover, turned and Dr Strange is attacked and his body turned as his spirit roams free. All of this happens because they trust Blade and Blade is behind the event. The revealing that the head vampire is a beloved superhero is somewhat like DC Vs Vampires but where DC held the identity to the climax of the first volume, this reveal comes in pretty darn quick in this volume. It turns out that Blade is possessed by the spirit of the First Vampire, Varnae (a recurring Marvel character over the years).
What is interesting is the primary crisis is averted by the end of the volume (sun returns, not a major spoiler as the real spoiler would be to tell you how and by whom) unlike the DC volume, which has more volumes to come but was pretty downbeat in its story, but there are many more crossover volumes in this series too (ten more at current count) and currently sight unseen I assume they tell stories within the event (and perhaps beyond the event too). I will start bringing those to TMtV as I read them. As for this, perhaps the vast array of characters might prove confusing (and my background is far more DC than Marvel) but it held together well as a story and if parts felt rushed or glossed over I suspect it is because I’ll find those stories in more detail in the further volumes. Nevertheless, superheroes and vampires (and yes Dracula makes an appearance) have to be good. 7.5 out of 10.
In Paperback @ Amazon US
In Paperback @ Amazon UK
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