Blood Hunt is fast approaching its end, and its penultimate issue starts putting all the pieces into place for a final showdown. Having summoned the temple of the First Blasphemy to Manhattan, Blade plans to make the vampires’ conquest of Earth permanent. To stop him, Doctor Strange and Clea seek help from the one person who’s been able to hold the vampire invasion at bay: Doctor Doom. Meanwhile on Asgard, Tigra and Hunter’s Moon seek out the help of a god to help turn the tide.
If that sounds like a lot, don’t worry: Jed MacKay unfurls the story at a pace that’s easy for the reader to follow along, while dropping some big bombshells. Doom will help Strange, but for a price the Sorcerer Supreme might not be willing to pay. A character previously thought dead returns to life – and no, they aren’t a vampire. MacKay even manages to touch upon the events of tie in series like Blood Hunt: Black Panther and Blood Hunt: Strange Academy, which only serves to heighten the scale of the vampires’ attack – and makes this feel like a proper event.
He also finally reveals the real reason behind Blade’s turn to darkness, and I’m mixed on it. On the one hand, it explains a lot – and also shows MacKay’s deep knowledge of the Marvel Universe, as this revelation is tied into an adventure from Blade’s past. On the other hand, I feel like the revelation would have hit with more force if it was presented an issue or two earlier.
The art, on the other hand, remains phenomenal. At this point, I’m running out of great things to say about Pepe Larraz but I will reiterate that very few artists can draw a big superhero blowout like he can. Whole pages are dedicated to amazing moments like the Avengers reassembling in all their glory, as well as Strange and Clea standing in Doom’s court in Latveria; even if you’d never read a comic with Doom in it, you’d immediately get the sense that this is a man who thinks very highly of himself given his ornate throne room.
Larraz also doesn’t forget that this is a horror comic. The Temple of the First Blasphemy is a clear example of this; even with the world shrouded in eternal night, it stands as a towering reddish-black structure, evil radiating from its every pore. Blade himself is continuing to undergo a transformation into something inhuman, with his eyes turning bright red and his entire body transforming into shadows. Marte Gracia plays with a balance of shadow and light, perfectly balancing the heroic moments against the horrific; he also adds a personality to Cory Petit’s voice balloons. Each character sounds distinct, whether it’s Thor’s Asgardian dialect or Iron Man’s electronically filtered voice.
Blood Hunt #4 tees up for the grand finale with revelations and revolution galore, making this one of Marvel’s better events. I have every faith that MacKay and Larraz can stick the landing.
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