Warning! MASSIVE spoilers ahead for Blood Hunt #1!!
Marvel has revealed the mysterious figure behind the vampire uprising in the new ultra-violent crossover event Blood Hunt, and it’s definitely not who readers would expect. The opening salvo of the vampire war on the Marvel Universe sees the sun being blotted out and Marvel’s heroes being defeated by the superhuman vampire team Bloodcoven. As Doctor Strange and Clea try to discover a way to magically stop the violence, they are shocked to discover the vampires’ leader: Blade.
Blood Hunt #1 by Jed MacKay, Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia and VC’s Cory Petit opens with the Avengers on the defensive as the vampire attack begins. Darkforce users like Darkstar, Dusk, Silhouette, Cloak and Shroud have all exploded, turning into portals of dark energy that darken the skies all over the world. With no sunlight to stop them, the planet’s vampires unleash a brutal assault on humanity. Unlike other vampire attacks Marvel heroes have faced, the one in Blood Hunt is organized, led by a vampire cult known as the Structure. After the Structure’s leader was previously killed by Moon Knight, they are now following a new master.
The issue ends with the surprise revelation that Blade is the coordinator behind this attack. Whether he’s in possession of his own faculties or not, he’s already succeeded in taking out Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
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Blade Just Turned His Back On Everything He’s Ever Fought For
If there’s one thing everyone knows about Blade, it’s that he kills vampires. Introduced in 1973’s Tomb of Dracula #10 by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan, Blade aka Eric Brooks was born to a human mother who was bitten by a vampire while she was pregnant. Blade was born with the strengths of a vampire but none of its weaknesses. Known throughout the Marvel Universe as the Daywalker, he is devoted to hunting vampires and stopping them from spreading their darkness across the world. In the past couple of years, he’s only become more devoted to that mission, making this turn all the more shocking.
In the wake of the massive King in Black event, the world’s vampires consolidated under one Vampire Nation, set up in the ruins of Chernobyl and led by none other than Dracula. Blade moved to the newly established nation, not to join them, but to act as its U.N.-appointed sheriff and keep the vampires in line. He’s also been training a new generation in the fight against vampires. He’s reunited with his daughter, Brielle aka Bloodline, to impart his knowledge on her. Blade also teamed up with Miles Morales’ Spider-Man to stop a vampire attack, gifting him an awesome new vampire-hunting outfit in the process.
Did Blade’s New Vampire Powers Corrupt Him?
Ironically, Blade’s most recent battle against evil might be the very thing that set him down this new dark path. His latest self-titled series by Bryan Edward Hill, Elena Casagrande, Valentina Pinti and Lee M. Ferguson has pitted Eric against a new enemy known as the Adana. Blade was the one who unwittingly set this ancient evil loose, which soured his friendship with Doctor Strange. The Daywalker’s crusade against the Adana saw him journey to Hell and the Archives of the Second World, angering many evil forces around the world. But most surprisingly, he was also forced to seek help from Dracula in order to more fully tap into his vampire side and unlock new powers.
Dracula teaches Blade that, in order to defeat evil, he must embrace the evil inside himself. As a half-human, Blade fights with “the limits of a man.” But Dracula convinces him to stop resisting his more monstrous impulses. Blade reluctantly agrees and shows it by drinking Dracula’s blood and accepting his vampiric nature. This allows him to unlock new vampire powers, such as turning into smoke, a wolf and a swarm of bats. Blade’s vampire power upgrade enables him to defeat the Adana, but by embracing his darkness, did Blade set himself down a path there’s no coming back from?
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Blade Unleashes His Ultra-Violent Kill Squad On The Avengers
Blood Hunt’s opening issue sees Blade systematically orchestrating a worldwide vampire attack and taking out the Avengers in one fell swoop. He tells Strange that he used Atlantean magic to detonate users of the Darkforce and blot out the sun. Next is creating a series of global uprisings, “mobilizing legions of mass-turned maniacs, all across the globe. Striking at population centers, critical infrastructure, the like.” The final step is to take out the Avengers. Knowing that his former teammates would want his knowledge and insight during a vampire attack, Blade tells them to meet him at their new orbital base, the Impossible City. But instead of Blade, they are met by the Bloodcoven.
This kill squad of vampires powered by superhuman blood proves to be more than a match for the Avengers. Each member of hte Bloodcoven is fueled and empowered by a different food source, be it agony, magic, spirits or thoughts. One member, the Damascene, is capable of cutting anything, including Thor’s Asgardian skin and Vision’s intangible synthezoid muscles. Together they make short work of the superheroes, with only Sam Wilson’s Captain America escaping from the brutal defeat. Black Panther ensures that Sam can make it out, knowing that the world will need a symbol to unite them in the fight against darkness.
Bloodcoven Members | ||
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Vampire Codename | Appearance | Pepe Larraz’s Design Notes |
Cruel | | “This one was pretty straightforward. A character wrapped in razor wire by his own will is terrifying enough, so that is what I did. I added the cloud of wires at his feet and neck, always moving like some kind of metal gorgon.” |
Smoke Eater | | “The idea is that he inhales ghosts to acquire their strength in combat, so I made a physical representation of that. He becomes the unification of multiple beings, therefore the multiple limbs, which makes his silhouette pretty recognizable in battle scenes, and makes him one of the heavy hitters of the team. The idea is that he shows all the eyes of the ghosts on his forehead. I have a thing with eyes – on my designs, I either put none or too many!” |
Damascene | | “My initial idea was to make them bi-dimensional, like a paper sheet that will cut you when you try to grab it, but it was very difficult to convey that idea in comics, without movement. So I did his body absolutely geometrical to remark the sharpness of the body. Again, I decided to put no face. Expressionless beings are more scary, in my opinion.” |
Megrim | | “Probably the most vampire-looking of the litter. I hid her face on red cloth but my idea is that the cloth was always drenched in blood. The skirt’s folds make shapes like faces screaming of pain. Everything is super intense with her. She must be unbearable.” |
Unusual | | “The initial idea by Jed was to make him a collage of old engravings, always changing, like some kind of sinister Max Ernst picture in movement, but that would present a copyright issue so I came up with a weird idea. I started with a bunch of parallel lines and used a liquify tool from Clip Studio to make shapes with those lines, and finally adapted these shapes to a human silhouette. It’s probably the weirdest and fastest design I’ve even done.” |
Bloodstorm One | | “I gave him a lot of thought because I didn’t want to do a vampire super hero, but a true monster, who is scary enough that he’s even scared of himself. He hides his true nature under a perfect human shell, like some kind of Michelangelo’s David which is rotten inside, twisted, homicidal. The worst monster of all is the one who wants to look as the perfect human. The armor is an homage to Vlad Tepes’ armor from Coppola’s Dracula film, which seemed to me like a proper reference.” |
Blood Hunt‘s Massive Reveal Raises A Whole Lot Of Questions
The Blood Hunt event is set to run through July and pull in participants from all corners of the Marvel Universe. As the Avengers continue to battle the Bloodcoven, Dracula will seek to assert his own place in this new world order. To accomplish this, he will turn to Blade’s daughter, Bloodline. Meanwhile, the Daywalker’s former team, the Midnight Sons, will be reuniting to take on Blade. Blood Hunt #1 also sees Blade approaching Miles Morales, telling him he has a plan and there’s something the young Spider-Man needs to do. Previously released cover art has already revealed that Miles is set to undergo a horrifying vampire transformation.
No doubt there will be more answers forthcoming about why Blade has teamed up with the world’s vampires and how long this attack has been in the works. But for the time being, the former vampire hunter finds himself triumphant. While his new kill squad and army of the undead were certainly useful in securing the victory, Blood Hunt’s opening has revealed Blade’s greatest weapon of all: the element of surprise.
Blood Hunt #1 (2024) | |
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