CREATOR EXCLUSIVE
The vampire apocalypse is descending on the Marvel Universe in Blood Hunt and Union Jack The Ripper
NOT ONLY MARVEL’S biggest summer crossover for several years, Blood Hunt is also set to be the goriest ever, with writer Jed MacKay and artist Pepe Larraz producing not only the standard five-parter but also expanded, polybagged Red Band editions, which will depict the gruesome events that unfold in even more graphic detail.
“They’re pretty horrific!” MacKay tells Red Alert. “We looked at ways to create a more horrific version of our issues and [editor] Tom Brevoort, Pepe and I talked it over and identified sections to be redrawn. Pepe went wild and came up with some particularly gnarly stuff!”
Beginning with various vampire factions using malevolent Darkforce energy to block out the Sun, the core five-parter draws on plot threads from MacKay’s other Marvel books.
“While it grows out of what’s going on in Moon Knight, Avengers and Doctor Strange, it also acts as a culmination for older Marvel vampire stories, bringing things to a bloody head for 2024,” he says. “Marvel vampires have spent a long time in the shadows, and as vampires don’t exactly step into the light, it’s about time they brought the rest of us into those shadows with them.”
Also appearing is Miles Morales’s Spider-Man, alongside Blade’s daughter Brielle Brooks from last year’s Bloodline and, of course, the Daywalker himself. “You can’t have a vampire event without Blade!” laughs MacKay. “We’ll also be introducing a team of super-vampires called the Bloodcoven, who are effectively the Avengers of the vampire world, and who have been designed to perfection by Pepe.”
With Danny Lore and Vincenzo Carratù teaming up on the three-part Dracula: Blood Hunt, the Prince of Darkness also plays a significant role. “There’s a really fun intersection of classic vampire horror and superhero stuff,” says MacKay. “On the surface, Dracula being an active participant in the Marvel Universe seems absurd, but there’s something about it that just works. We’re trying to lean into that horror vibe as we’re stepping up the stakes and desperation of the situation.
“Our heroes are staring down the barrel of an extinction-level challenge, and one that, from the jump, they’re losing,” he continues. “The choices made during this long night will have significant repercussions to come and will leave the world in a much different and unexpected shape in the following months.”
From Black Panther: Blood Hunt to anthology series Blood Hunters, Blood Hunt will be supplemented by
