Blood Hunt #5 Review: The Hunt’s End Leaves A Mess For The Marvel Universe

Blood Hunt #5 review

Blood Hunt, to be frank(enstein) has been an odd duck of an event. While it’s one of the first large-scale events Marvel has had in a while that has spilled over into the main line, and there were a slew of spinoffs and one-shots, it still felt relatively self-contained. Perhaps that’s due to the tight plotting from Jed MacKay. But I would argue that, particularly in this final issue, it’s a “big” event characterized by small moves.

In case you didn’t participate in the Hunt, here’s the gist — and spoilers past this point. Blade, who has been possessed by an ancient vampire named Varnae, causes all the users of the Darkforce to explode and cover the Earth with blackness. Vampires attack, a few characters get turned, and then the heroes rally and fight back. In classic “it never ends” fashion, most of the final issue is spent in an enormous battle with Blade/Varnae, followed by changes of status quo and a tee-up for the next big event.

Marvel has already announced the latter, by the way. Doctor Doom is now Sorcerer Supreme of the Marvel Universe, and aiming to do a better job of protecting the world than Stephen Strange ever did. He’s also taken full credit for stopping the vampire menace, leading into “One World Under Doom” starting this November. Not coincidentally, over this past weekend Marvel Studios revealed their next big villain is Doctor Doom, played by Robert Downey Jr. It’s corporate synergy at its best, and we do like a corporate initiative – don’t we folks?

The thing that doesn’t quite work about this is that Doom says he’s dealt with the vampire threat… But the other status quo change is that vampires can now seemingly go out in the sun. So he didn’t save anything? It’s something that will no doubt be dealt with in the spinoff series Blade: Red Band and Blood Hunters, as well as in Miles Morales: Spider-Man, as Miles is still a vampire for the foreseeable future. But that’s the nature of an event like this, it’s all middle.

That isn’t anything new, but is perhaps why it feels so small. The Blade threat is resolved, but the vampires are still out there, Miles is still a vampire, and yes, Doom is Sorceror Supreme… But on the latter front, Loki has also been Sorcerer Supreme. Doctor Strange died not too long ago, and Clea — now his wife — became Sorcerer Supreme. We got good stories out of both of those moves, but this is the third time in less than a decade that a villain has taken on the mantle, and the pace at which it is happening has only increased. By this time next year, chances are The Big Wheel will be the next Sorcerer Supreme, and honestly, that sounds great.

That’s all focused on the ending, but what about the rest of the book? Pepe Larraz knows how to draw action scenes, and there are some good moments here like the fight between Bloodline and her father, Blade. But true to form with these sorts of events, there’s a lot packed in with multiple heroes, bolts of lightning, and Darkforce energy flying… The one-on-one pages like those between Strange and Doom are simpler and cleaner. MacKay, meanwhile, laudably draws together plot strands from multiple miniseries and spinoffs deftly. It may not all be necessary, but the job of the leader of an event like this is more in the realm of conductor than writer, and all the trains arrive here on time.

Overall, this hunt was fun to go on, but it felt less emotionally impactful than the best of the best of Marvel events. If anything, the most lasting legacy here may be the launch of Marvel’s Red Band books, “adults only” editions meant to drive fans into stores as they’re not sold digitally. And we do love a corporate initiative, don’t we folks?

Blood Hunt #5 is in stores now from Marvel.

Comic Book Club Live Info:

Want to watch Comic Book Club live? We stream every Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch. Come hang out, and ask questions of our guests (and us!). And you could potentially win a $25 gift card to Midtown Comics. You can check out a current list of upcoming guests and other live appearances on our Shows page.


Discover more from Comic Book Club

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Leave a Reply