Blood Hunt kicked off last week with a fantastic debut that was full of action, dread, suspense and surprises. It’s a throwback event in some ways with a massive amount of tie-ins and spin-off miniseries. Blood Hunters #1 begins one of those with an anthology featuring three stories set during the vampire attack. The result? A whole lotta pass.
Featuring three stories, Blood Hunters #1 opens with Hawkeye being caught by police for his recent actions but then that being interrupted by the vampire attack. Written by Mark Russell with art by Bob Quinn, and color by Matt Milla, it has Hawkeye rallying a group to stop the initial attack wave. It also just… ends. What could have been a fantastic multi-chapter story about Hawkeye being a leader and rallying everyday citizens to stop the vampire attack ends in a way that makes it all feel rather pointless. The threat doesn’t feel ongoing and sustained like the event should make you feel.
Christos Gage, Javier Garron, and Morry Hollowell continue the humor as J. Jonah Jameson and his son take on some vampires in a story that not only delivers a more comedic tone but also a choppy narrative. It too doesn’t add much to the overall story and while it’s nice to see what individuals are doing, the story teases how Jameson could help but doesn’t follow up.
The final story by Erica Schultz, Bernard Chang, and Marcelo Maiolo is more of what I expected. Dagger is confronted with vampires and must deal with them and how her partner is being used as part of this. It teases more to come and that is what I thought the series would feature more of, the formation of a team in a series of short stories.
It’s rather unfortunate Blood Hunters #1 doesn’t live up to the event debut. But, when the event debut is so good, it’s kind of hard to. Part of the issue is the comic’s tone doesn’t really match the horror of the event’s debut and the comedic tone of the comic feels rather odd. When there’s so much to explore in the chaos, it’s an oddity for sure.
Story: Mark Russell, Christos Gage, Erica Schultz Art: Bob Quinn, Javier Garron, Bernard Chang
Color: Matt Milla, Morry Hollowell, Marcelo Maiolo Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Story: 6.5 Art: 7.0 Overall: 6.75 Recommendation: Pass
Marvel provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
Purchase: Zeus Comics – Kindle
Source: Graphic Policy
