The fun of the Avengers is that the team roster is fairly flexible; nearly every hero in the Marvel Universe has joined up at one point or another. Blood Hunt puts a rather dark spin on this, as the current Avengers roster is outright devastated by the vampiric horrors known as the Bloodcoven. But Avengers #14 offers a ray of hope: Steve Rogers assembles a makeshift team of Avengers to battle the vampiric hordes swarming New York City. This new team consists of Hercules, Quicksilver, Kate Bishop and Hazmat – but will they be enough to stop eternal night from sweeping over the world, especially with the reappearance of one of Rogers’ oldest foes?
Avengers fans will note that this new roster pays homage to the “Cap’s Kooky Quartet” era, where Rogers took on Hawkeye, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch as Avengers despite their criminal pasts. It was a signal that anything could go in this book, and that’s the same energy that Jed Mackay and C.F. Villa tap into. Mackay avoids the usual pitfalls of a tie-in book by writing a tale that manages to stand on its own, yet still plays into the events of Blood Hunt. It also doesn’t hurt that he’s reunited with Villa, as the two’s work on Black Cat is a comic that I loved.
Marvel Comics
Part of the draw of Avengers #14 is seeing how Mackay crafts a dynamic between this new team of Avengers. The first five pages explore each Avenger’s mindset – Rogers’s approaching the vampire invasion as a declaration of war, Hercules’ love of humanity, Kate comparing life to archery (which is surprisingly profound), and Quicksilver’s desire to save his sister. But the MVP has to be Hazmat, whose prickly personality results in some fun interactions, particularly with Hercules.
Villa packs each page full of superheroic action, and draws vampires dying in particularly creative ways. One page has Quicksilver racing by a group of vampires, jamming stakes into their hearts. Another has Hercules punching a vampire into mist. You can also expect plenty of panels of Captain America’s shield flying at you, with Rogers adding a special edge to battle vampires. Frederico Blee’s color art emphasizes each hero’s colors, making them shining beacons in the eternal night – and the same goes for Cory Petit’s lettering.
Avengers #14 is how you do a tie-in book: it builds on the events of Blood Hunt while also telling its own standalone story. If you’re reading Blood Hunt this is also worth picking up – I’d love to see more of this team once the vampire invasion has passed.
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