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 even the heroes of this doomed world stem the tide of blood that is to come? Find out in Blood Hunt #1, written by Jed MacKay, drawn by Pepe Larraz, colored by Marte Gracia and lettered by Cory Petit.
Marvel’s big summer event is here, and it’s the inverse of sunshine and rainbows for Earth’s heroes.
I like event comics that know what they are. Something fun, silly, big and bombastic is the best way to go. Thankfully, writer Jed MacKay is more self-aware than most.
After a spell detonates Darkforce users everywhere, a vampire army tears through the globe. Earth’s heroes are the only hope to save the planet from the invasion. Unfortunately, the mysterious vampire king is 10 steps ahead of everyone, and that will be their undoing.
I enjoyed this so much. The whole story is just a big summer action movie, cover to cover. It’s not deep, it’s not complex, and MacKay knows it. He subverts expectations with a few plot points. No character has plot armor. Everything goes very bad, very quickly. This is an event where the heroes lose and have to claw back. It’s very dystopian, but in a remarkably horrific way.
The highlight is absolutely Pepe Larraz and Marte Gracia’s art, though. The superhero stuff is illustrated well, playing to both artists’ strengths. Where it really shines is the horror. The two-page scene of the vampires essentially taking over the world is great, and Larraz builds up the tension with his pacing, mixing carnage with quieter scenes of terror. Gracia fills the pages with deep, glowing reds, which helps add a sense of foreboding to the vampire event.
All that said, that’s a pretty standard sounding event, isn’t it? A decent story, great art, it’s the norm.
Well, it all opens up in Marvel’s Red Band gimmick.
And yes, while it’s obviously there for the sales, I really liked the Red Band edition.
Until the last page, the differences are subtle. In the worldwide carnage sequence, it’s much gorier, with some panels taking place a few moments earlier than the standard edition, some a few moments later. The vampire is decapitating his victim instead of just biting him, while the gramma vamp has a bloody, dismembered hand in her mouth. Several bodies are graphically torn in two.
A few things that stayed the same surprised me. The rest of Blade’s interaction with Miles Morales stayed the same, making me think that will be saved for a reveal later in the story. I didn’t expect new art with Thor’s fate, but I did expect the coloring to be different — giving a full view instead of a shadowed view. Both interesting points to stay the same.
The biggest differences come toward the back half of the book. In the final moments of the Avengers’ fight with the vampires’ elite Bloodcoven, T’Challa’s fate is SIGNIFICANTLY more horrifying. Before Blade arrives at the Sanctum Santorum, we get to see the results of the initial carnage, including heads on pikes. Then the last page, as Blade reveals himself as the vampire king, instead of stabbing Strange, he violently bisects the Sorcerer Supreme.
While a sales gimmick without a doubt, legitimately, the Red Band version is a better comic. This is a horror story, and the added beats make it more of one.
So if you liked Blood Hunt, but thought it was a little lacking, go to your local comic shop and pick up the Red Band edition.
I don’t think you’ll be sorry.
Buy Blood Hunt #1 here. (Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.)
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
