Marvel Comics has shared new details, cover art, and preview pages for Jed MacKay and Pepe Larraz‘s Blood Hunt event series.
Blood Hunt #1 arrives on May 1, 2024 — kicking off both a five-issue limited series and a larger event that will see a villainous vampire horde descend upon the Marvel Universe. “As we’ve seen in MOON KNIGHT, I keep chucking vampires in!” MacKay said during a virtual Blood Hunt retailer conference (via Marvel.com). “And [BLOOD HUNT] is a logical extension of that. I started gathering ideas and figuring out what we want to do from there, and a lot is keyed in from the work we’re doing on MOON KNIGHT, and DOCTOR STRANGE is a natural vector into that. If there’s an Earth-shaking event, the Avengers will be the first on the scene.”
“This just seemed like a natural rise of all of these vampire threads that we could pull together and weave into an interesting tapestry. This would cover the full spectrum of the Marvel Universe in a justifiable event that it doesn’t come out of nowhere,” Marvel executive editor Tom Brevoort added.
MacKay and Breevort also discussed the special Red Band Editions of the main Blood Hunt issues, which offer more guts and gore than the standard editions. “[The Red Band scenes] aren’t just happening to background characters,” MacKay explained “We’re also seeing our heroes being impacted in a much more violent way.”
“The best page for the Red Band edition in issue #1 is the last page of the book,” Brevoort said. “We can’t reveal it since it gives away too much of the plot, but you’ll know it when you get there.”
Marvel shows off new Blood Hunt artwork
That being said, Marvel did share a new early preview of MacKay and Larraz’s Blood Hunt #1 — consisting of five fully-lettered interior pages. Check that out below:
Additionally, Marvel revealed Jesús Saiz‘s variant cover for Blood Hunt #3 and Tony Daniel‘s variant cover for issue #4. Check those out below:
Finally, the House of Ideas shared the covers for some upcoming Blood Hunt tie-in issues — namely, Avengers #15, Doctor Strange #16, and Vengeance of the Moon Knight #6 (all of which go on sale June 12). Check those out below:
AVENGERS #15
- Written by JED MACKAY
- Art by C.F. VILLA
- Cover by JOSHUA CASSARA
- On Sale 6/12
DOCTOR STRANGE #16
- Written by JED MACKAY
- Art by PASQUAL FERRY
- Cover by ALEX ROSS
- On Sale 6/12
VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT #6
- Written by JED MACKAY
- Art by ALESSANDRO CAPPUCCIO
- Cover by DAVIDE PARATORE
- On Sale 6/12
What exactly is Blood Hunt about?
An official synopsis for Blood Hunt #1 reads as follows: “THE BLOODIEST MARVEL EVENT EVER! The skies have gone dark, the sun hiding its face from the carnage to come. The children of the night, the vampires, have risen from the dark and hidden places of the world as one to drown the Marvel Universe in blood. Earth’s final night has fallen — can even the heroes of this doomed world stem the tide of blood that is to come? Join the AVENGERS, BLADE, BLOODLINE, SPIDER-MAN, HUNTER’S MOON, TIGRA, DOCTOR STRANGE and CLEA as the dance of death begins in BLOOD HUNT #1!”
Marvel further explains that “the event kicks off when various vampire factions, united for the first time in millennia, engineer a global attack using Darkforce energy to block out the sun. Having lurked in the shadows of the Marvel Universe since its very beginning, vampires are now unleashed on humanity as heroes and villains alike fall prey to their overwhelming bloodlust. Who will bite it?”
Of course, the Blood Hunt event will extend well beyond MacKay and Larraz’s main five-issue series. In addition to the aforementioned tie-in issues of existing series (of which there will be 16 in total), Marvel has also announced eight tie-in limited series and six one-shots.
Blood Hunt #1 goes on sale Wednesday, May 1 from Marvel Comics.
