The covers on these two comics alone are enough to warrant a pick up from me and after listening to a podcast talk about how great it was, I was determined to pick it up. Now I actually picked these up at two different shops on Free Comic Book Day(FCBD). I got the FCBD version at my usual shop, I Want More Comics; then the first issue I picked up at Hero Headquarters. Why did I get them at different shops? Well the FCBD version was available at my usual shop but not the first issue. When I went out a second time to get some issues for a friend of mine I found this variant edition. I also didn’t notice until I got home that the variant edition I picked up was in fact a wrap- around cover. This was the only issue left that I managed to get, so finding out that it was also a wrap-around cover was an added plus.
Now I said going forward I was only going to be collecting Poison Ivy, Deadpool and Wolverine WWIII because I also got two mystery boxes of comics that I want to go through. However this Blood Hunt storyline is making me really think about adding it to my comic list.
A little different with this review since it’s two books. I’ll be reviewing the cover art, but I’ll just briefly mention the FCBD version instead of a full review:
Cover Art
Story
Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App
Thought this was a cool and clean spread for a title open.
Cover & Story - Free Comic Book Day Blood Hunt 1*
As mentioned before the covers on these two books are freakin’ sweet. I’ve always been a big fan of vampire stories and movies like Blade, Twilight and Underworld. So seeing superheroes up against vampires is like a match made in heaven for me. On the FCBD cover the superheroes featured are Spider-Man, Daredevil and two members from the Fantastic Four, Sue Storm and Reed Richards. There is another character wielding a sword that we later find out is Blade’s daughter, Brielle Brooks. It’s a really neat cover that does a good job showcasing a horde of vampires.
The story for this one is pretty short; we are shown four different areas that are dealing with something called “darkforce.” In Manhattan we have Spider-Man fighting off some being that ends up exploding into what I can only describe as a tornado of darkforce matter. Next Reed Richards and Sue Storm are alerted of multiple dimensional breaches and are worried that it might be the darkforce dimension. Daredevil is then seen fighting off a slew of vampire in Hell’s Kitchen; and Blade’s daughter Brielle Brooks is also fighting some vampires when she stumbles upon none other than….
No way! Dracula is in this? Of course!
Cover - Blood Hunt 1 Variant Edition
So this cover was quite a surprise when I got home. I didn’t realize it was a wrap-around and since it was already a cover I really liked, I was pretty stoked to check out what’s on the back. Similar to the FCBD version, this cover features a variety of superheroes on the cover fighting a butt ton of vampires. Thor, Captain America and Scarlet Witch are on the front; on the back we’ve got Doctor Strange, Spider-Man but in a different color suit than the FCBD version, Blade and I want to say Iron Man. Also on the front of the cover we have a vampire ripping the face off some skull, not sure if it’s supposed to be a known superhero but it looks pretty badass.
To start off, I was a bit lost with what the panels were talking about in regards to each one having a “Sundeath” along with a time. It looked like the numbers were all counting down but I couldn’t be sure because on the following page we jump back to a higher number than before. It begins with Scarlet Witch and Iron Man trying to get a sense of what is going on. They determine that there are reports of other superhumans exploding into darkforce portals. Next we got Hunter’s Moon and Tigra, two characters I am unfamiliar with, but they get jumped by another horde of vampires.
What I really liked was an inclusion of a key players sheet that named off all the characters we need to know starting with Avengers; Scarlet Witch, Iron Man, Thor, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Vision and Captain America. The Midnight Mission consists of Hunter’s Moon and Tigra, while the last group is unnamed but is made up of Spider-Man, Blade, Doctor Strange, Clea and Doctor Doom. After that we get some more pages consisting of panels showing an apocalyptic world ruled by vampires with the “Sundeath” time. Then Spider-Man shows up and is fighting vampires and asks the question, “What would Blade do?” Well Blade shows up, says he has a plan and needs Spider-Man. All the Avengers are fighting their own separate battles but Blade is able to contact them and says he has information and that they all need to meet up.
This panel of Thor with a wooden stake through his head is wild!
Well that ends up being a huge ambush by Blade and the Avengers are all beat to shit by a bunch of villains called the Blood Coven. Thor gets whooped, Vision gets stabbed, Iron Man gets his suit taken apart, Captain Marvel endures excruciating pain, Captain America gets tossed across the room through a wall, Wanda is being overpowered. It’s all hands on deck and the Avengers are losing badly. Thor gets what I can only assume is a wooden stake, right thru his head. Black Panther gets struck down and the Blood Coven says they have to keep the world symbol alive, meaning Captain America I think?...
I sensed something was going on with Blade, but a part of me wonders if someone is controlling him…
We cut to Bleeker Street and come upon Doctor Strange and Clea frantically trying to assemble a formula that would fix everything. But they are visited by Blade, who tells them there is someone who is uniting the vampires to compete against the Avengers. Doctor Strange thinks it’s Dracula but Blade tells him no, it’s someone else (considering the ending of the FCBD Blood Hunt, we see Dracula meeting Blade’s daughter Brielle and fighting alongside her). We land on the last page and BAM! Blad stabs Doctor Strange from behind and says, “It’s me.” WOW! What an ending and awesome artwork to tell this story. I’m really tempted to get the next issues.
Overall 5 / 5
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