Warning: Contains spoilers for Midnight Sons: Blood Hunt #2

As Marvel’s terrifying Blood Hunt event begins to draw to a close, the vampires’ latest assault on Earth-616 has revealed some fascinating details about how the bloodsuckers operate. Midnight Sons: Blood Hunt #2 depicts a horrifying scene where a vampire shockingly rips his own face off, becoming the transformed monster vampires are often shown to be, explaining why some vampires look more human than others.

Part of that vampiric complexity is the fact that some people completely lose themselves to the vampire virus, giving into their darker natures and turning into full-fledged monsters. In contrast, others retain some semblance of their human selves.

Midnight Sons: Blood Hunt #2, from writer Bryan Edward Hill and artist German Peralta, introduces the readers to a newly turned vampire who terrorizes a young nurse at a Chicago hospital, using his claws to slice his human face off, revealing his horrific true visage underneath.

Vampires Can Choose To Look Like Their Most Monstrous Selves

Marvel answers the question of why some vampires look human

Marvel’s Blood Hunt has done a great job of continuing Marvel’s complex attitude towards vampirism, through details like showing Jubilee’s empathy towards some vampires or making heroic vampires like Pia in Strange Adacemy. The Marvel Universe often keeps higher-level vampires looking vaguely human, with enlarged teeth and claws but holding on to many things that would make them identifiable as one of the living. Similarly, lower-level vampires, fodder for the vampiric war, are often depicted as more monstrous and animalistic, unable to control their urges which has caused them to devolve away from humanity.

Marvel’s First Vampire is Also Pop Culture’s First Vampire (Pre-Dating Dracula)

Midnight Sons reveals a potentially different answer to why some vampires retain some of their humanity: Vampires can choose to cut away the parts of them that make them human. The scene in the hospital is a truly terrifying example of body horror, as the vampire slices off its face as if it has a zipper on it, revealing a fully vampiric head underneath. With its former human face hanging limply off its head, this vampire has passionately embraced its new life as a force of terror and bloodshed. While the comic doesn’t explicitly say that all vampires must remove their human faces to reveal their full vampire form, the scene does imply that it is a choice.

Varnae Has Revealed Vampires Can Undergo One Final Transformation

The goal of the Blood Hunt was to become the Unliving Darkhold

Even though the vampire in Midnight Sons has chosen to remove its human face to fully become a vampire, Blood Hunt #4 reveals the major secret that there is a final evolution a vampire can go through at Marvel. The issue finally reveals that “Blade” is not truly Blade, but instead is the ancient vampire Varnae possessing the Daywalker, attempting to reach its final state of being. By using ancient Atlantean technology Varnae has transcended its “pupal” form to become the “Unliving Darkforce,” a being that holds the Darkforce Dimension within itself.

Varnae is proving that no matter how monstrous a vampire may appear – even after ripping the flesh right off their face – they can still become even more vile. Vampires at Marvel have never had an easy time, but following the events of Blood Hunt, most vampires should probably try to keep their human faces on if they can…

Midnight Sons: Blood Hunt #2 from Marvel Comics is available now in stores.