Blood Hunt #1 Review

Written by: Jed MacKay
Art by: Pepe Larraz
Colors by: Marte Gracia
Letters by: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover art by: Pepe Larraz
Cover price: $5.99
Release date: May 1, 2024

Blood Hunt #1 begins Marvel’s massive Spring/Summer 2024 event when an evil mastermind blots out the Sun, directs all vampires on Earth in a coordinated attack, and puts down the Avengers with a team of Ultravampires.

Is Blood Hunt #1 Good?

And then it’s over. Thanks for coming, Everybody. You can go home now. The vampires won, and that’s the end of Marvel.

What? Do you want to know what happened? Okay, but it is and isn’t what you think.

Starting in the middle of nowhere (Of course, because this is Marvel), readers find every hero and villain who uses Darforce Dimension energy has suddenly exploded into fountains of darkness that quickly merge into a Sun-blocking veil over the Earth. Immediately after, legions upon legions of vampires spring to attack large population centers around the globe, killing or turning as many humans as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, Blade sounds out a broadcast to all Avengers to quickly meet in the Impossible City so he can deliver critical intel that may help the fight against a vampire apocalypse. The City teleports Blade’s speeding truck up at the same time as the rest of the Avengers, and out pops the Blood Coven – a team of Ultravampires with the strengths and talents to defeat the Avengers and the Impossible City (?) with little fuss. Only after a brave act of sacrifice by Black Panther do a few of the Avengers manage to teleport away. Scarlet Witch is captured, and Black Panther and Thor are either gravely injured or dead.

Elsewhere, Blade shows up at the Sanctum Sanctorum to give Dr. Strange and Clea the news about what happened. On the last page, we learn the identity of the mastermind behind this attack, who took over the vampire gang known as the Structure and orchestrated this whole thing.

In short, perpetual darkness, a global vampire wave of attacks, and the Avengers were soundly defeated. Any questions?

Yes, you, in the back with the Metallica t-shirt. What is the Structure? It’s a rival NYC gang of vampires headed up by a vampire with the personality of an accountant (read: dried toast) called Tutor. You’d only know about the Structure if you read Jed MacKay’s Moon Knight series, specifically issues #14 through #18. It was a forgettable arc that went nowhere, and MacKay managed the magic trick of breaking vampire lore in issue #18. Tutor died in that issue.

Yes, the young lady with too much eye makeup on the left. Do we learn the identity of the mastermind behind the attack? Yes, we do. Credit to MacKay for not drawing it out. Without spoiling who, it’s a character you know, it’s not Dracula, and it’s a complete surprise to everyone. That’s good and bad. More on that in a minute.

Yes, you. The pudgy boy with the bad haircut in the front. Cebulski, MacKay, and everyone associated with building this story made a big deal about Blood Hunt being an event a year or more in the making, so were the clues in plain sight the whole time? 100% no. Again, the Master credits his success to the Structure, which was a medium-sized vampire gang operating in NYC, almost entirely wiped out in Moon Knight #18. The Master is surprising in that the other title where this character appears showed absolutely no signs of this plan in development. Further, the sheer volume of vampires needed to pull off this attack is much too big to discretely hide. Let’s just accept the fact that Marvel’s idea of planning and foreshadowing doesn’t meet any normal definition of those words.

What’s great about Blood Hunt #1? If you’re going to do a big, world-ending event, hit ’em fast and hit ’em hard. To MacKay’s credit, he manages to set up a scenario where it feels like the world has already lost before the fight started. Blood Hunt feels big, which is what an event should do. That said, there are several problems…

What’s not so great about Blood Hunt #1? The scenario feels big, but several big and small problems crop up throughout the issue to either take you out of the story or don’t make sense. For example…

There’s not a lick of setup. You walk into the middle of the chaos AFTER the Darkforce Dimension users have already exploded and started spewing matter into the sky. In the few issues involving the characters featured in this issue, none of these events have taken place, so you’re dropped in the middle of the battle without any buildup.

The Master’s identity is a surprise, but none of the recent appearances of this character provided a single clue that any of this planning and coordination was happening. As late as last week, this character was busy doing other things, so the emergence of this character as the Master comes across as highly implausible.

Little nitpicky annoyances crop up. Why would Captain Marvel urgently ask Black Panther to explain what’s happening because he’s the “Canny One?” Where are Steve Rogers and Peter Parker while all this is happening? Why is the Impossible City susceptible to pain??? Why would anyone say, “I already knew that Wanda Maximoff would never cast the spell to exterminate an entire people?” Does MacKay not know about the phrase “No More Mutants?” There’s more, but you get the idea. For an event a year or more in the making, this level of sloppy thought and research is disappointing.

How’s the art? No complaints. Pepe Larraz’s art is magnificent, as usual. The story may have its ups and downs, but it looks gorgeous.

About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.

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Bits and Pieces

Blood Hunt #1 kicks off Marvel’s major event for 2024 with high stakes, big action, and a decisive sneak attack that creates a seemingly impossible challenge for the heroes. That said, the almost total lack of setup is weird. Clues that have supposedly been planted in other titles meant nothing, and the big bad is an out-of-the-blue surprise that makes little sense given the Master’s recent activities. Blood Hunt looks great and feels big, but the sloppiness in details and setup results in a mixed bag.